Brass to join M&S as operations director, delivering new vision for retail ops

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 5, 2021

Deep into its well-publicised transformation strategy, UK retailer Marks & Spencer has appointed Alastair Brass as retail operations director, effective April.

Brass will join from energy company Centrica where he is customer contact director. He will next report to M&S director of retail, operations and property Sacha Berendji. 

Brass will be responsible for “building a store estate that’s fit for the future with industry-leading retail operations and empowered colleagues” as part of the retailer’s ‘Never the Same Again’ transformation programme.

Specifically, he will be responsible for all aspects of retail operations including customer and central, clothing and home, food and UK franchise and retail efficiency. 

M&S said: “Alastair will utilise the wealth of experience in central operations, customer service and transformation he’s acquired during his time at Centrica, Dixons Carphone, Capita and Thomas Cook, as he helps to drive forward the M&S transformation and develop industry-leading operations.”

He joins in what will be an extremely busy period for the UK retail giant in the run up to the reopening of non-essential retail, and includes the integration of a number of private fashion brands into the M&S store offer, including Joules, Phase Eight, Hobbs, Seasalt and Jaeger (the latter of these now part of the owned M&S portfolio).