Another reshuffle at Marks

MARKs & spencer has brought in Dixons carphone’s former UK and Ireland chief executive Katie Bickerstaffe as it ploughs on with its transformation plan.

It is the latest appointment to the board by M&s chairman Archie Norman following a major shake-up of top directors to refresh its struggling food and clothing divisions.

Bickerstaffe, 50, who helped oversee Dixons’s £4bn merger with carphone Warehouse in 2014, is due to become chief executive at the household gas and electricity business being formed by Npower and sse later this year, subject to approval of the deal by the competition regulator.

M&s has also appointed Pip Mccrostie, 59, a non-executive director at satellite communications multinational Inmarsat. Before that, Mccrostie spent 29 years as a global executive at accounting firm ernst & Young.

The appointments come as M&s teeters on the brink of crashing out of the FTse100. Analysts are preparing for the 134-year-old retailer to announce another drop in profits this week. Another disappointing set of results could see it forced out of the blue chip index which it has been part of since its formation in 1984.

As part of its transformation strategy launched in November, M&s has closed stores, slashed hundreds of jobs and promised to cut prices.

Norman said last night: ‘As we embark on the first phase of our transformation programme we are building a cohesive and engaged board with deep and relevant skills in retail and business change.’