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Marks & Spencer’s fashion boss is expected to leave the company after failing to stop the rot at its struggling clothing business.
The departure of Jill McDonald, which could be confirmed by the retailer later on Thursday, follows veiled criticism of her first full year in charge at the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday.
The M&S chief executive, Steve Rowe, told shareholders mistakes had been made during a “troubled year” for its clothing and homewares business. He singled out a major jeans promotion in February that went awry after buyers failed to buy enough stock.
“We sold out,” said Rowe, who added that the error had resulted in “us having the worst availability in casual clothes I have ever seen in my life”. While progress had been made improving the design of its clothing, there remained problems with how its buying operation worked, he said.
M&S is going through its biggest shake-up in 25 years as its hands-on chairman, Archie Norman, who joined in 2017, leads a major overhaul of one of the UK’s biggest household names.
Last year Norman, who is highly regarded for turnarounds during his career, including at Asda and ITV, told investors M&S was “on a burning platform … We don’t have a God-given right to exist and unless we change … in decades to come there will be no M&S.”
McDonald, who was poached from the cycle and car parts specialist Halfords, only joined M&S in October 2017. The 55-year-old, who is not on the main board of M&S, was a controversial choice as its clothing, home and beauty director because she had no fashion industry experience.
McDonald began her career at the health and beauty group Colgate-Palmolive before spending 16 years at British Airways and almost a decade at the fast food chain McDonald’s. Her potential departure from M&S was first reported by Sky News, which suggested her going could diminish confidence in the company’s turnaround plan.
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