Marks & Spencer has appointed a former Morrisons retail operations boss to become its director of central store operations.

Marks & Spencer fascia

Jayne Wall, who revealed last month that she would be leaving Morrisons after 14 years, will take up her new position at Marks & Spencer in August.

At Morrisons, where Wall has held a variety of roles, she played a key part in the transformation of the grocer, including the design and rollout of format and range localisation, building the Market Street offer and service, and was one of the team who led it through the pandemic.

M&S operations director Sacha Berendji said: “We’re delighted to have Jayne joining us and she comes at an exciting time for M&S as we go faster on our plan to bring our bigger, better and brighter stores to more customers.

“At the heart of our strategy to reshape M&S, brilliant stores are how we offer our customers the best experience however and wherever they choose to shop with us, and Jayne’s experience and new ideas around great service, in-store execution and developing talent will be a great addition to the team.”

Wall said: “I am very proud to be joining M&S and can see the great progress the team has made under [M&S chief executive] Stuart Machin’s leadership. I am looking forward to being part of that high-performing team and bringing all my stores experience to support the business’ ambitious growth plans.”

Wall is joining M&S as head of central operations Peter Line moves on after 40 years with the business. Line, who has decided to retire from a full-time leadership role, is taking up a position at Woolworths in South Africa as the relationship manager between it and M&S.

Berendji added: “We wish Peter the absolute best in his new role and look forward to working with him, continuing the long-running relationship between our two businesses.”