M&S expands Per Una, and Sainsbury's exec comes in from the cold
This week last year retailers breathed a sigh of relief, with a surge in Christmas shopper numbers the previous weekend. John Lewis declared that its weekly sales had soared by 17 per cent. This year, the picture is not so pretty, with talk of panic Sales and shoppers staying away.

George Davies was heading up an expansion of Per Una boutiques into smaller Marks & Spencer stores. The range continued to grow its profile within the stores until the retailer finally bought out Davies' share in October. However, M&S shelved plans to ape George standalone stores using the Per Una range in June.

Sainsbury's lost its head of non-food sourcing, Christophe Roussel, to Tesco. He took up the role of international sourcing director at the supermarket giant. When he was recruited by Sainsbury's, his superiors described him as 'world class, with great experience'. Sainsbury's got its revenge in the end though, with the defection of Ken McMeikan from Tesco in November this year. He was expected to take over Tesco's Japanese business, but went to Sainsbury's to take the retail director role instead.

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