'High-flying Dutchman' Marc Bolland takes helm at M&S

Published on Wednesday 18 November 2009 20:26

WHEN Sir Stuart Rose paraded his deputies to investors last month, it was billed as the City's own X Factor, but the announcement of his replacement was a very Marks & Spencer affair.

Marc Bolland, credited with a resurgence at supermarket Morrisons, isn't just any new M&S chief executive, Rose said. He is a turnaround expert, with a successful career in international branding (who has, incidentally, proved he can work with a pushy chairman).

Rose, the group's executive chairman, said M&S had identified, sought out, and recruited, the very best candidate "all within the privacy of the company" a reference to the drama enveloping ITV's own search for new executives.

M&S had hoped to anoint an internal candidate for retail's most prestigious role. But its executives failed to impress analysts, so it opted to pursue Bolland, the 50-year-old "high-flying" Dutchman, despite just three years experience in retail.

Shares in M&S jumped almost 6 per cent on the news, which ends a long-running corporate governance dispute with investors over Rose's role.

Bolland, Dutch, single and multilingual, is well liked in the City. He joined Morrisons from brewer Heineken in 2006, soon after it issued a series of profit warnings related to the disastrous acquisition of Safeway.

He began the role under the grocer's cantankerous founder Ken Morrison, who had only recently bowed to pressure to appoint non-execs to its board.

The pair bonded and apparently worked well together, although Morrison said at the time that he didn't "want someone who stays for three years then disappears".

A substantial rebranding of Morrisons, focusing on freshness, has been bearing fruit. This year it has outgrown its rivals, with like-for-like sales up 7.8 per cent in the six months to 2 August, with profits up 45 per cent.

Immediately, analysts began questioning whether Bolland, who rose to become chief operating officer after two decades with Heineken, was a credible candidate to run M&S, which still has clothing as its cornerstone.

Rose conceded that his successor "has never sold clothing", but said that the strong executive team, and innovative thinking, meant a lack of experience would not hurt the business. "His experience might have been an issue when I came back to the business in 2004… it's not an issue now." Rose, who will become part-time chairman after a hand-over period, declined to "second guess" where Bolland might take M&S, but talked up his international skills.

"We live in a global world with global brands, and M&S is behind the curve in its international reach," Rose said.

Bolland's appointment is likely to be a bitter disappointment for M&S finance and operations director Ian Dyson, who was widely tipped for the role.

The news is also a blow for Morrisons, which announces Q3 trading figures today. Its shares fell 4.9 per cent.