Taking over a business where like-for-like sales are falling by more than 6% is not an enviable task. At least when Marks & Spencer head of food John Dixon becomes executive director of general merchandise in October, he will - as a rare interview in The Grocer revealed last week - be on familiar ground.
Dixon said when he became head of food in 2008 the division was in trouble. “Like-for-like sales were down 6%. The City was questioning the long-term viability of the food business,” he said.
By bringing in new ideas, including the hugely successful Dine-In for £10 and the Wise Buys range, as well as shaking up the food team, Dixon managed to return that section of the business to health.
He will need all that turnaround nous again as head of the general merchandise business. In the 13 weeks to the end of June, the division’s sales crashed by 6.8%.
Talking to The Grocer, Dixon said M&S food is a “like a fashion business” - where the job is about bringing emerging trends to the consumer, sometimes for the first time in the UK. Now with a real fashion business to run, he will have to bring the same mentality to bear.
Joined by Belinda Earl, the former CEO of Debenhams, he has support from someone who really knows fashion inside out. Together with his 26 years of experience at M&S and his recent success turning around the food business, the two have as good change as any would of putting some spark back in M&S’s much-maligned wardrobe.
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