M&S poaches Sainsbury’s Chris Marrow to help overhaul supply chain

M&S has hired Sainsbury’s logistics director Chris Marrow as it seeks to modernise its supply chain.

Marrow is to join in spring 2020 as head of food logistics, overseeing M&S Food’s transport and distribution network. He has spent the past 14 years at Sainsbury’s.

M&S has also recruited Malcolm Basey, a former supply chain director for both Morrisons and Costcutter. Basey arrived at M&S this month in the role of head of supply chain operations. He spent the past two years at Costcutter and the 11 before that at Morrisons.

Both roles are reporting to M&S commercial director George Wright.

The appointments are part of M&S Food MD Stuart Machin’s plan to overhaul M&S’s costly and inefficient supply chain, improving availability and reducing waste.

The challenges of the supply chain, which was built for a simpler store estate, were set out by Machin at an investors’ morning in October, along with opportunities to reduce costs.

New supply chain principles launched in a single-store trial had recently been rolled out to a further 85 branches, serviced by M&S’s Barnsley depot, a spokeswoman said today. The trial would form a “test and learn exercise” through the peak Christmas trading period with a view to creating a new operating model for the whole business.