M&S names marketing director for food

Andrew Hicks has been appointed marketing director for M&S Food, as part of a “series of planned moves and new hires” by the company.

Hicks joins from Woolworths Group in Sydney where he worked for 13 years, most recently as CMO. Prior to that he was marketing director for Woolworths Food and Woolworths Liquor, and has 20 years of marketing experience across Australia and South Africa.

The marketer will report to M&S Food managing director Alex Freudmann, and has been tasked with further driving M&S to “deliver against its ambition to be a shopping list retailer”, while retaining a focus on “quality, value perceptions and trust”.

He takes over from Sharry Cramond, who headed up M&S’s marketing for food for more than seven years. She was recently appointed marketing director of M&S fashion, home and beauty following the departure of Anna Braithwaite.

Cramond is also responsible for masterbrand marketing and the Sparks loyalty programme across the business, and will be retaining these responsibilities.

Braithwaite, who held the clothing and home marketing director position for four years, is joining John Lewis as chief customer officer, starting on 1 October.

Despite recently being hit by a cyberattack, which led to a forecasted £300m profit hit, M&S has seen success in recent years, being named Marketing Week’s Brand of the Year in 2024 after it saw 13 consecutive quarters of growth.

It was also named YouGov’s ‘Best Brand’ of last year, after achieving the highest brand health score out of any UK brand across the previous 12 months.

The food department has been particularly successful, with Cramond telling Marketing Week last year that quality perceptions have risen by 13 percentage points and millions has been invested to bring down prices.