Marks & Spencer has today announced that Laura Wade-Gery, its executive director of multi-channel, will not return from maternity leave at the end of September and has stood down from its board with immediate effect.
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The company said Wade-Gery would receive remuneration terms “in line with the key provisions for contract termination as per Marks and Spencer Group plc’s Executive Remuneration Policy approved by shareholders in 2014”.
Shares in M&S, down a third over the a year ago, closed down 5 percent at 326 pence. I concluded that the time was right to move on from M&S.
“It’s not good news as she has a fantastic reputation”, said Bryan Roberts, an analyst at TCC Global.
Financial rules dictate that investors must be told if directors are away for longer than three weeks, but there are very few precedents of such a senior woman taking time off to become a mother.
In the year she’s been absent, Wade-Gery said there had been “significant changes” in both her personal life and in the business.
Wade-Gery was initially meant to have returned to M&S in January this year, but she extended her maternity leave until September. “I wish Steve [Rowe, chief executive] and all my colleagues and friends every success”.
Less than two months into the role, Mr Rowe branded the performance of its clothing and home arm “unacceptable” after like-for-like sales plummeted 8.9 per cent in the first quarter to July 2.
Last week the retailer also revealed plans to cut around 525 head office jobs – around 15% of the total – in an attempt to remove duplication, drive accountability and “strip out unnecessary costs” across the business.
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But the new chief executive, who took the top job after almost 30 years at M&S, has already faced criticism over changes to pay and pensions for shop workers including cutting premium pay for Sundays.
