M&S's new clothing boss rings womenswear changes

LONDON (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer, Britain's biggest clothing retailer, has parted company with its head of womenswear less than a month after the boss of its non-food division quit the business.

M&S said on Tuesday that Frances Russell, who has led the womenswear business for nearly three years, has left the company.

M&S said it has promoted Jo Jenkins into the expanded role of director of womenswear, lingerie and beauty. She had been lingerie and beauty director for two years and previous to that spent 15 years at rival Next.

The changes are the first wrought by Steve Rowe, who replaced John Dixon as head of general merchandise, spanning clothing, shoes and homeware, on July 16.

Dixon quit to be chief executive at an unnamed company.

Rowe's move from being head of M&S food put him in pole position to succeed Marc Bolland as group chief executive.

Having reviewed the general merchandise leadership, Rowe decided to bring together all the product areas designed for female customers under one line of accountability, so as to better exploit synergies.

Last month M&S reported a dip in first-quarter underlying sales in general merchandise, a setback after a return to growth for the first time in 15 quarters in the previous three months.

Shares in M&S, up 31 percent over the last year, closed Tuesday at 547 pence, valuing the business at 9 billion pounds.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Leslie Adler)