Marks & Spencer has named an all-female leadership team to head up its latest flagship stores.
Justine Brook is in charge of the Leeds White Rose store, which opened on 25 May; Kirsty Williams is spearheading the Liverpool ONE opening on 15 August; Laura Smith is in charge of the Manchester Trafford Centre relocation, Dior Hudson is overseeing the Lakeside Centre, Essex relocation while Emily King and Naomi Hartley will job share the Birmingham Bullring store.
Together the six have more than 115 years of retail experience.
King and Hartley job share managing the Solihull store. ‘When we first started talking about the idea, Naomi and I realised that we’d actually started working at M&S on exactly the same day in September 2005 on the same retail graduate scheme. Since then we’ve followed our own career paths, but now we’re working together as a team – so this job share was obviously meant to be,’ says King.
‘I’ve got two young children at home, so the idea of a job share was definitely motivated by wanting to be there for family. But I am also doing a HR consultant apprenticeship alongside my store manager role, so the job share has also given me the time and space to pursue my professional development too,’ says Hartley.
‘I remember returning to work after maternity leave and thinking that I wanted to move to working part time now that I had my two children. But I was worried that the options to progress my career could be more limited. My manager did say to me “Why are you holding yourself back just because you now want to work part time?” That was a key moment for me when I realised I could still progress, and not long after the job share opportunity with Naomi came along. So, it was perfect timing for both of us,’ says King.
‘It feels great to know that M&S is supporting me to do this – and that it has put its faith in Emily and me to open the new Birmingham Bullring store. Its one of M&S’s biggest new stores, so we feel really privileged to be chosen to take on such a big job. And yes, there’s a little apprehension when you think of the job ahead, but we just remind ourselves that we both have the experience working together to make this a big success,’ says Hartley.
‘We’re delighted to have such a fantastic group of women to lead our five biggest new store openings this year. Stores are key to M&S’s omnichannel future and we know from the performance of our recently opened and renewed locations that customers are responding well to the changes we’re making. We also want to make sure that M&S is a great place to work for our colleagues [and] we’re determined to offer our colleagues the options to help them achieve a good work life balance,’ says Sarah Findlater, Marks & Spencer group HR director.
‘Whether it’s working flexible hours or job sharing like Naomi and Emily in our new Birmingham Bullring store, our colleagues have told us that these options have given them more choice and freedom on how they’re able to make time for their families and themselves.’
Pictured L-R are Laura Smith, Dior Hudson, Naomi Hartley, Justine Brook, Emily King and Kirsty Williams.
