M&S shares slip as its hires Halfords boss Jill McDonald to run clothing

Marks & Spencer today poached Halfords boss Jill McDonald to run its embattled clothing business, but its shares fell amid questions about her lack of experience in clothing.

McDonald will take over from chief executive Steve Rowe, who has been overseeing the clothing division despite becoming chief executive last year, in the autumn.

After a prolonged period of decline, clothing sales grew 3.1% in its last quarter and Rowe said it was the right time for the appointment, praising McDonald’s “first-class customer knowledge”.

But the shares slipped 5p to 365.8p as analysts highlighted her non-clothing background. Prior to joining Halfords, McDonald was UK head of fast-food giant McDonald’s and worked at British Airways and Colgate Palmolive.

Peel Hunt’s Jonathan Pritchard said: “Jill herself has done well to fend off some tough headwinds at Halfords: the biggest question mark surrounds the lack of experience of clothing in her CV.”

Investec’s Kate Calvert said “the question is how will she interact with the other executives to drive a more customer-centric culture into M&S”.

Halfords chairman Dennis Millard said he hoped McDonald would have stayed with the bike retailer for longer, but it was “no surprise” M&S wanted her for the role.

McDonald had helped improve service and engagement with staff during her time at Halfords, Millard added.