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Harvey Nichols has appointed former Fortnum & Mason and Tesco director Lucy Menendez as its new hospitality food and beverage director, amid a wider reshuffle of the 192-year-old department store’s senior team.

In the newly created position, Menendez will be responsible for elevating the department store’s hospitality offering across its in-store restaurants, cafés and brasseries. She will also lead the redevelopment of its own-label food and beverage range which is already underway, the company said.

Menendez joined from rival Selfridges in January, where she had been a strategic consultant in the food department since January 2022. Prior to that she spent 10 months as a consultant at the River Café and was commercial director at Fortnum & Mason between July 2017 and April 2021.

She was also previously category director for books at WH Smith, category director for health and wellness at Tesco and spent a decade at Woolworths.

“Lucy joins at an exciting time,” said Manju Malhotra, Harvey Nichols CEO. “We know our food and beverage offering is key to our customers, and it plays a large part in our growth strategy. Lucy’s experience and expertise will be invaluable as we look to build on our already well-established business segment.”

Annabel Thorburn will also join as e-commerce director in April 2023 after four years at sports fashion brand Sweaty Betty. She previously spent 12 years at Tesco in various roles, including as head of product for web development, in which she played an important role in developing Tesco’s grocery online ordering service.

Part of her new role will be responsible for the department store’s app-based rewards programme and online offering.

Thorburn is joined by Brian Handley, who has been appointed retail director after spending 11 years managing stores in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Istanbul.

All three will report to Malhotra.

“We have some exciting plans in the pipeline and I very much look forward to working with this incredible team to drive growth in 2023 and beyond,” Malhotra said.