City profile

Archie Norman Talk about a Norman conquest, said Claire Hutchison in the London Evening Standard. Shares in M&S jumped 5% last week on news that Archie Norman – the retail turnaround king credited with “rescuing Asda from ruin” in the early 1990s – is joining the chain’s board as chairman. He will work alongside CEO Steve Rowe, the M&S lifer appointed last year to revive the group after a “prolonged” period of poor performance in all but its food divisions. Some analysts worry how the team will pan out with Norman as “a back-seat driver”, but most took the line adopted by Dr Clive Black of Shore Capital – that this is a “formidable appointment”.

Norman is probably best known as “the only FTSE 100 chief to sit as an MP”. Elected as MP for Tunbridge Wells in 1997, he went on to become chief executive of the Conservative Party when William Hague – an old chum from their days together at consultant Mckinsey – was its leader. But he “ruffled Tory feathers”, and in 2005, returned to business fulltime, taking on a plethora of chairmanship roles, at Hobbycraft, Lazard and ITV. Norman “is always up for a challenge”, said Jeremy Warner in The Sunday Telegraph. But frankly, “I’m amazed he was persuaded to do the job” at M&S. “Under siege on all sides from the online behemoths”, bricksand-mortar retailers face challenges that “have never been greater”. Big corporate names wax and wane, but M&S “surely deserves to survive in some shape or form”. If anyone can breathe new life into “what remains a fabulous brand”, it is probably Archie Norman.