Former Dixons and John Lewis man David Walmsley joins M&S to spearhead multichannel sales drive

David Walmsley is expected to focus on multichannel operations at M&S

Marks & Spencer has bolstered its multichannel team, headed by Laura Wade-Gery, with the appointment of David Walmsley, formerly electricals giant Dixons’ ecommerce director.

Walmsley joined Marks & Spencer this week as a director in its multichannel and ecommerce business. His appointment comes just two weeks after former Tesco director Wade-Gery took up her post at the bellwether retailer, where she will spearhead the drive to meet chief executive Marc Bolland’s target of increasing multichannel sales from £500m to between £800m and £1bn by 2013/14.

Walmsley’s departed from Dixons after two years at the Currys and PC World owner. In its last financial year, Dixon’s ecommerce sales, including Pixmania, dropped 5% last year to £842.7m. That followed a 14% jump in 2010, Walmsley’s first year in charge of the division. 

Prior to Dixons, Walmsley was head of web selling at John Lewis Partnership. He ranked 23 in this year’s Retail Week Etail Power List.

Wade-Gery said: “David has a strong track record of leadership within online retailing and his experience will support the delivery of our growth plans for our multichannel, ecommerce business.”

The City has high hopes for Wade-Gery at M&S – about £185m was added to the retailer’s valuation in the days that followed the announcement of her appointment in February.

M&S aims to build its multichannel capacity at home and internationally, and later this year will re-enter France using a bricks-and-clicks model.

Wade-Gery was poached from Tesco where she has been chief executive of its online business since 2004. Before exiting, she had been named as head of non-food at the grocer, a £10bn business, and would have been promoted to new boss Philip Clarke’s executive committee if she hadn’t left.

Martin Newman, chief executive at ecommerce consultancy Practicology, said: “M&S made it clear it was serious about multichannel when it appointed Wade-Gery, and now they’re bringing in another heavyweight with Walmsley’s appointment.”

Newman said he expected Walmsley to focus on operations to allow Wade-Gery to concentrate on strategy.

Topics