MARKS & SPENCER has poached a second high-profile executive from Asda in an attempt to regain market share from the supermarket’s successful George clothing brand.
Helen Low, design general manager for George, has been appointed head of design for children’s clothing at M&S, just days after it was revealed that Asda had overtaken its rival to become the UK’s top clothing retailer by volume.
Ms Low will join M&S in October, along with Kate Bostock, formerly Asda’s clothing supremo, who was poached to become director of women’s wear in May.
Ms Low, like Ms Bostock, had previously spent time at Next, where she was design manager for children’s wear. She was instrumental in launching Asda’s Fast Fashion, and was latterly responsible for George designs for children’s wear, women’s wear, lingerie and footwear.
M&S denied yesterday that the appointments from Asda were connected. Ms Low, the company said, was recruited by Anthony Thompson, the former Gap executive brought in to head its children’s wear department last year.
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M&S has been seeking a new head of children’s clothing design since the departure of Lisa Illis in May.
Mr Thompson has struggled to improve the fortunes of M&S children’s wear, which has been losing market share for two years. This autumn, children’s wear prices are being cut by about 8 per cent across the board compared with two years ago.
M&S now controls just 5 per cent of the children’s clothing market, according to TNS Fashion Trak. This compares with 9 per cent in 1998, according to Verdict Research.
Asda gained 3.3 percentage points of market share to claim nearly 9 per cent of the market between 1998 and last year, Verdict said.