M&S joint chief government Bickerstaffe to step down

Katie Bickerstaffe, the joint chief government of Marks & Spencer (M&S), is to depart the corporate after simply two years within the function.

Sky News can solely reveal that Ms Bickerstaffe is to depart M&S this 12 months, handing over the only reins to Stuart Machin.

Ms Bickerstaffe is leaving to concentrate on 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 mentioned on Wednesday night.

Announcements are possible from each firms within the coming days.

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

Ms Bickerstaffe, who has led the digital, information and worldwide facets 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 power 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% during the last 12 months, 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 most 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 in the course of the interval, at the same time as continued inflationary pressures have squeezed grocers’ margins.

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

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

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

The choice 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”.

Numerous main retailers mentioned in response to the finances that it had accomplished 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.