M&S joint chief govt Bickerstaffe to step down

Katie Bickerstaffe, the joint chief govt of Marks & Spencer (M&S), is to go away the corporate after simply two years within the position.

Sky News can completely reveal that Ms Bickerstaffe is to go away M&S this yr, handing over the only real reins to Stuart Machin.

Ms Bickerstaffe is leaving to deal with a portfolio profession and has lined up a task as a non-executive director of Kingfisher, the DIY retailer which owns B&Q, a supply near it stated on Wednesday night.

Announcements are possible from each corporations within the coming days.

She will depart M&S with the corporate in the very best form operationally and financially than it has been for a few years.

Ms Bickerstaffe, who has led the digital, knowledge and worldwide elements of M&S’s enterprise within the final two years, has amassed share choices price hundreds of thousands of kilos throughout her tenure.

Previously the boss of Dixons Carphone’s enterprise within the UK and Ireland, she went on to guide SSE’s retail vitality companies division and its subsequent integration into Ovo Energy.

She is now a non-executive director of the England and Wales Cricket Board and of Barratt Developments, the FTSE-100 housebuilder.

Before turning into co-CEO alongside Mr Machin, she held different senior jobs at M&S, together with as its technique chief.

Shares in M&S have surged by 50% over the past yr, reflecting traders’ confidence within the technique of its board, led by the retail veteran Archie Norman.

Mr Norman is himself anticipated to step down within the subsequent couple of years.

Steve Rowe, the earlier CEO, laid lots of the foundations for the corporate’s run round, shrinking its retailer footprint within the wake of the pandemic and reinvigorating its clothes enterprise.

M&S’s meals operations have continued to carry out strongly through the interval, whilst continued inflationary pressures have squeezed grocers’ margins.

Ms Bickerstaffe’s departure will once more scale back the variety of feminine bosses in Britain’s blue-chip share index.

A supply stated on Wednesday night that Kingfisher was “fortunate to have recruited her”.

The news of her exit comes after a major week for M&S, which received an attraction in opposition to a authorities resolution to cease it tearing down its Marble Arch retailer in central London.

The resolution of Michael Gove, the communities secretary, to forestall the demolition had sparked fury at M&S.

Mr Machin launched a fierce assault on the federal government’s financial coverage previous to the finances, saying that doing enterprise in Britain was “like running up a downwards escalator with a rucksack on your back”.

Quite a few main retailers stated in response to the finances that it had executed nothing to alleviate the enterprise charges burden they face.

Shares in M&S closed on Wednesday at 240.8p, giving it a market capitalisation of £4.85bn.

M&S declined to remark, whereas Kingfisher has been contacted for remark.