M&S Looking For A New Head of Fashion
Jill McDonald who held the poison chalice of being Head of Clothing & Home at M&S has been shown the door after two largely fruitless years attempting to turn around the struggling division. The appointment was always going to be a bit of a gamble given that her admittedly impressive resume was pretty much as far removed from the clothing sector as you can get. As a former head of Halfords and prior to that a senior executive at McDonald’s there was little skillset overlap and M&S had been struggling for years to get this right with industry professionals at the helm. A fresh set of eyes is sometimes the answer, however, in this instance, the gamble has backfired badly and now her appointer chief executive Steve Rowe will have to add the role to his agenda while a replacement is found. Not ideal given the companies struggles.
Another one that cannot get @marksandspencer clothing sorted – Jill McDonald exits – and Steve Rowe to take over. Her lack of skill in clothes buying and supply chain appears to be the problem. But then the problem existed before she joined didn’t it?
— Maureen Hinton (@maureen_retail) July 11, 2019
So what went so wrong?
Well like her predecessors Ms McDonald struggled with an extended supply chain. Whereas once M&S was seen as the stalwart of the UK textiles industry, now only four suppliers are UK based and the bulk of their range comes from Asia. This has obviously saved costs but comes with a cost in lead times and logistics planning. This has led to stock shortages in popular lines and often swathes of larger and smaller sizes being left unsold due to poor ordering. The problem with clothing is that unless you are selling a one size fits all you need to know your clientele or at least look at national demographic body sizes. This combined with a lack of imagination when trying to compete with the fast-moving online fashion retailers and an alienating of the core consumer by moving away from their traditional classic quality & style mantra.
M&S once famous for its underwear is struggling to find an identity in the current clothing market.
Editorial credit: Barry Barnes / Shutterstock.com
So the hunt begins for Jill McDonald’s successor, who will hopefully have more success.
