Marks and Spencer is bringing in an experienced fashion retail expert to head up the Jaeger clothes brand which it acquired last month.
Fiona Lambert will become the managing director at Jaeger, which is being run as an independent brand within the M&S family.
Jaeger was placed into administration by Dubai-based owner and retailer Philip Day back in November, alongside sister firm Peacocks.
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In January M&S bought the brand and stock for an undisclosed amount, understood to be around £5 million.
Its 63 stores and concessions were not part of the deal and closed, with 22 head office staff and 211 store staff being made redundant.
Ms Lambert, who is from Leicestershire, has decades of experience in the sector, working alongside George at Asda founder George Davies to launch George as the first fashion supermarket brand in 1990.
Following that she was womenswear product director at the Next HQ, just outside Leicester, and returned to George in 2007 as brand director.
There she ran the design, buying and quality control teams producing more than 237 million garments for almost 400 Asda stores and for the George.com website.
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She also led the George Home launch which has gone on to be one of the top home brands in the country.
She was also product director at Dunelm’s Leicestershire HQ before joining River Island Global Holdings as managing director of business development in October 2018.
There she launched its Harpenne online womenswear spin-off, which ceased trading when the pandemic hit.
She told BusinessLive she was excited to be working with a historic British fashion brand such as Jaeger, which can trace its roots back to 1884.
She said: “I’m delighted to be joining the team at Marks & Spencer and to have the opportunity to reinvigorate the amazing Jaeger brand with a dedicated team.
“I have a passion for fashion history and am inspired by the incredible heritage of Jaeger as a loved British brand, coincidentally founded in the same year as M&S!
“I’m looking forward to being part of Marks & Spencer’s transformation plans.”
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M&S said Ms Lambert will run Jaeger as a separate independent business reporting directly to its clothing and home managing director Richard Price.
In a statement the high street chain said: “Fiona is experienced at defining and transforming brands and she will freely lead the brand re-positioning of Jaeger, supporting the expert team to revive the heritage in a relevant, contemporary, and commercial way.
“M&S purchased the Jaeger brand, products and supporting materials last month as part of its plans to turbocharge growth on M&S.com through selling complementary third party brands.”
Ms Lambert, who joins on February 22, is an ambassador of Retail Week’s Be Inspired Campaign, and is a past inspirational woman of the year and lifetime achievement award winner at the Leicester Mercury Women in Business Awards.
Anna Braithwaite, global brand director for non-food products at Tesco, is also joining M&S in the summer as director of clothing and home marketing.
She is a marketing specialist with more than 15 years in fashion retail fashion, including more than a decade at John Lewis. She also helped relaunch the Jacques Vert, Hobbs and F&F brands.
Richard Price said Ms Braithwaite would help the business stay in touch with its millions of 海角视频 customers, “however they chose to shop with us”.
He said: “Alongside this, as we turbocharge our online proposition with new brands, we’re committed to reinvigorating Jaeger whilst retaining its much-loved brand heritage – and we’ll do through a dedicated team led by Fiona Lambert who is experienced in transforming clothing brands.
“As a wider team we remain committed to offering our customers relevant products and services for how they’re living and working both today and in the future, and we’re looking forward to Anna and Fiona playing a role in our accelerated transformation.”