Marks & Spencer has appointed Marsha Smith stores director, west, effective September. Her role will cover all areas South of Manchester and West of Northampton, with West London also included.  

She joins from Ikea where her career with the Swedish furniture and homewares giant has spanned 20 years, covering several countries at operations/managerial level. 

Smith currently leads the UK & Ireland operations team. In addition, she also supports some of the brand’s other key markets, including Germany and Portugal, and formerly led operations in Canada. 

“She has driven expansion into new markets and led on senior leadership development and retail transformation”, M&S said of her appointment, with its Operations Director Sacha Berendji adding: “Her strong operational and leadership skills will strengthen our retail team further and help deliver our ongoing transformation.”

Smith also said of her appointment: “I’m looking forward to leading the team to build on the impressive performance over the last few years, and ensuring customers continue to be delighted by our fantastic offer.”

On LinkedIn, she added: “Having had 20 amazing years with a brand I adore, I’m delighted to share I am fortunate to join another. Extremely lucky to have the opportunity to build further on the amazing work so far and to support continued growth by ensuring we delight every single customer.”

M&S has already announced it’s investing over £60 million to improve its store estate across the UK. That includes spending £30 million-plus in stores in the London area.

It comes as the retail giant continues with its wider plans to open up to four new full-line stores, as well as a raft of food halls and other store upgrades across the UK in this financial year.

Berendji added: “Expanding our presence in London is a key part of our growth strategy. Our new and renewed stores are performing ahead of forecast and attracting new customers, giving us the confidence to keep accelerating our store rotation strategy.”