Alongside the annual procession of trading results, the jobs market has sprung back to life unusually quickly at the start of January with a succession of notable appointments being confirmed this week.

The raft of new hires and promotions at Asda is particularly eye-catching – headlined by the arrival of Anna-Maree Shaw as chief customer officer – but senior-level appointments at Kingfisher, Debenhams and M&S demonstrate that there really is no time for dither and delay in the current retail landscape.

The latter three retailers each have ground to make up after a challenging 2019, hence why appointments that might previously have been confirmed in February have been unveiled mere days after the Christmas decorations have come down.