Now brain behind the M&S Christmas ads gets the boot

THE man behind Marks & Spencer’s Christmas adverts has become the latest casualty of a huge reshuffle to get the retailer back on track.

Marketing chief Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne is quitting after six years on the M&S board.

His job will be axed as part of a massive shake-up to give more power to the bosses of the two sides of the business – food, and clothing and home.

Their respective newly hired managing directors Stuart Machin – a protege of M&S chairman Archie Norman – and former boss of Halfords Jill McDonald, will be in charge of their own design schemes, advertising campaigns and customer loyalty programmes.

Bousquet-Chavanne, 60, is the latest M&S big beast to be culled by chief executive Steve Rowe as he battles to boost company profits. Fellow senior marketer Rob Weston is also departing.

Bousquet- Chavanne has worked in marketing in London, Paris and New York for more than 25 years and was previously a senior manager at Estee Lauder Companies, which is the owner of brands including Clinique and Jo Malone London.

He was hired by former M&S chief Marc Bolland, and his first festive advert campaign for the chain featured model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley ( pictured). He took home £1.2m last year.

The marketing boss is due to get up to £2m after he quits in May, including £525,000 in pay, benefits and a pension allowance.

A maximum of £1.5m more will be doled out in share awards if performance targets are hit under various bonus schemes, although insiders suggest the actual payout will be far smaller.

Six senior figures have departed or been moved to new jobs at M&S in the past month as part of Rowe’s turnaround plan.

Food boss Andy Adcock was ditched to make way for Machin, an industry veteran who has previously run Australian supermarkets Coles and Target.

The food side of the business is seen as over-complicated with too many products, and Machin is expected to dramatically simplify it.

Womenswear and beauty head Belinda Earl has been shunted sideways into an advisory role, while menswear and kidswear chief Michael Kerr and womenswear design director Queralt Ferrer are both departing.

McDonald, who took over as clothing and home managing director in October after leaving Halfords, is battling to make the brand more relevant to shoppers.

Shares in M&S rose 0.1pc, or 0.3p, to 281.3p.