Marks & Spencer has carried out a major shake-up of its marketing team, led by the appointment of Sharry Cramond as marketing director for food and hospitality.
Cramond arrives at the department store from a successful career with Southeastern Grocers in the US and brings a wealth of experience as a retail and digital marketer having also held senior posts at Tesco and Coles Australia.
The changing of the guard has been carried out as part of the retailers five-year transformation plan which seeks to deepen its talent pool while aligning its food division with its clothing and home department.
M&S’s food business, which is focused at the premium end of the market, has reported four straight quarters of like-for-like sales decline – the latest in the key Christmas quarter.
Earlier this month, Chief Executive Steve Rowe said M&S had a lot of work to do to improve its food offer.
“We know we’ve got some issues that we’ve got to deal with around pricing, around availability, around operation and we are on to those,” he told reporters.
In tandem with Cramond’s appointment M&S has promoted Nathan Ansell, marketing director customer and loyalty to the new role of marketing director clothing and home. Rounding out the changes is Rob Weston who moves to the post of marketing director, brand and customer.
