M&S taps up Tesco marketer to lead clothing and home

Anna Braithwaite will head up marketing for M&S clothing and home, tasked with driving reappraisal, replacing Nathan Ansell who is set to leave the business.

Marks & SpencerTesco’s global brand director for non-food, Anna Braithwaite, is set to join Marks & Spencer as marketing director for clothing and home as part of its “accelerated transformation” plan. She will replace Nathan Ansell, who is set to leave the business after nine and a half years.

Braithwaite is being brought in to help change perceptions of M&S clothing and home among consumers, and ensure products are more relevant, more often, as part of the retailer’s ‘Never the Same Again’ programme.

She will lead the streamlined marketing team, which is made up of creative and channel experts, reporting to M&S clothing and home managing director Richard Price.

Braithwaite has been tasked with focusing on ‘hero’ categories such as denim and finding opportunities for growth, particularly within kidswear and casualwear.

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Prior to her current role at Tesco, Braithwaite was head of brand marketing for the supermarket’s F+F clothing line where she was responsible for overhauling the brand and launching the ‘I only popped in for’ campaign to drive reappraisal.

She has a record of getting consumers to rethink brands, having also relaunched Hobbs and Jacques Vert during her time as head of marketing at each brand.

She began her career at John Lewis, spending more than a decade at the retailer, most recently as manager of brand marketing. She will join M&S in the summer.

Richard Price, M&S clothing and home managing director, says: “Our Never the Same Again programme is about being more relevant, more often, to our customers. Showing up as a brand with energy, confidence and style is crucial to this and so I’m delighted Anna Braithwaite is joining as our new clothing and home marketing director to lead how we talk to our millions of customers across the UK, however they choose to shop with us.”

M&S has also hired Fiona Lambert as managing director of the newly-acquired Jaeger business, which it bought as part of its plan to grow M&S.com by selling complementary brands.

While Jaeger will be part of M&S, it will continue to operate as a separate independent business reporting directly to Price.

Lambert has been tasked with repositioning the brand and reviving it in a “relevant, contemporary and commercial way”.

Price adds: “As we turbocharge our online proposition with new brands, we’re committed to reinvigorating Jaeger while retaining its much-loved brand heritage. We’ll do this through a dedicated team led by Fiona Lambert, who is experienced in transforming clothing brands.”

Ansell’s next move has not yet been confirmed.

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