M&S names new men's buying head after crucial buying error

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Feb 13, 2020

Marks & Spencer has brought in a new head of menswear buying, after a buying error in the men’s department resulted in weak men’s sales in the all-important Christmas quarter.

Alex Dimitriu is returning to the British department store chain after holding the role of senior head of buying between 2013 and 2016.

She is currently buying and design director at Miss Selfridge, and prior to that, she was womenswear director at New Look. During her career, she also worked in the buying teams of House of Fraser and retailer East.

At Marks & Spencer, Dimitriu will support CEO Steve Rowe’s efforts to turn around the struggling clothing business. In the 13 weeks to 28 December 2019, the company said its womenswear department showed signs of recovery, but it complained about the shape of the buy in menswear, resulting in underperformance in the men’s department.

According to City AM, the high street chain over ordered skinny and slim-fit men’s trousers, and it had too many small sizes and not enough medium and large.

Richard Price has been poached from F&F Clothing, Tesco’s fashion brand, to become the managing director of M&S clothing and home. His start date has not yet been confirmed.

The clothing and home unit saw revenues fall by 3.7% to £1m in the third quarter. Like-for-like sales were down 1.7%. Since then, Marks & Spencer has introduced a new womenswear activewear range, restructured the childrenswear category and unveiled a major denim ad campaign.