Gap's European Senior Director of Visual Merchandising to join M&S

Marks & Spencer has announced the appointment of Ben Wittmann as its new Head of Visual Merchandising, where he will focus on developing a “world class visual customer experience” with store design and brand marketing.

Wittmann will join the company in August 2021, as he departs his current role as Senior Director Of Omnichannel Marketing & Visual Merchandising at Gap Europe.

His career has spanned a number of clothing retailers including Zara, Selfridges, Topshop & Banana Republic.

As a senior marketing leader, he has a proven track record of developing customer led & commercially focused visual strategies and extensive international experience through expanding Gap brands across the globe in more than 40 countries in markets across EMEA, Latin America & Asia Pacific.

He will work directly under Anna Braithwaite, who will be joining as Director of Clothing and Home Marketing in June 2021, leaving her current role at Tesco where she is the Global Brand Director.

Braithwaite brings vast experience of delivering brand change with pace & impact. She will lead the streamlined marketing team made up of experts striving to inspire, extend reach and change brand perceptions by showing up with energy, confidence & style.

An M&S spokesperson said: “Our Never the Same Again programme is about being more relevant, more often to our customers, and to support these efforts we’re excited to have great new talent joining our team including our new director of clothing and home marketing Anna Braithwaite, who will now start in June, and Ben Wittmann who will join as head of store experience. Ben brings great expertise from working around the world with Gap and will lead how we visually present ourselves to our customers – showing up with energy, confidence and style.”

Yesterday TheIndustry.fashion reported the departure of business lead for third-party brands, Sarah Savva, after one year in the role. Savva joined M&S in July 2020, on a fixed term basis to support the launch of external brands to the business for the first time, which has now reached a total of 21.

M&S’s Director of Transformation and New Business Development, Neil Harrison, will now begin growing the third-party brands team – with new employees, including merchandisers and buyers, joining the business over the coming weeks.