The marketer joins Marks and Spencer after twenty years of marketing experience in Australia and South Africa, replacing Sharry Cramond.
Andrew Hicks has been appointed as the new marketing director for M&S Food, as part of a “series of planned moves and new hires” by the company.
Hicks joins from the CMO role at Woolworths Group in Sydney, a large retail company, where he has worked for 13 years, holding the CMO role for almost seven years. Prior to the CMO role, he was marketing director for Woolworths Food and Woolworths Liquor, and has twenty years of marketing experience across Australia and South Africa.
The marketer will report to M&S Food managing director Alex Freudmann, with the goal to “further drive M&S to deliver against its ambition to be a shopping list retailer” while retaining a focus on “quality, value perceptions and trust”.
His move follows his predecessor Sharry Cramond shifting roles to become marketing director of M&S Fashion, Home and Beauty, after holding the food marketing director role for seven years.
Cramond is also responsible for the masterbrand marketing and the Sparks loyalty programme across the business, and will be retaining these responsibilities.
Anna Braithwaite, who held the clothing and home marketing director position for four years before Cramond, is joining John Lewis as its 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 specifically has seen success, 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.
