Bibendum director moves to head up M&S drinks team

Bibendum’s buying director Andrew Shaw has moved to M& S to head up its Beers, Wines and Spirits division, it was revealed today.

Shaw has a strong retail background, having workd as buying manager at Waitrose for five years, before joining Bibendum in 2012 to head up its buying team, overseeing wine ranging, supplier relationships and new product development.

Shaw’s remit at M&S is to work with new ambient trading director, Lizzy Massey, who joined M&S from Asda in January to strengthen M&S Food’s transformation plan “to protect the magic of M&S whilst transforming the rest and become more relevant, more often to customers”, the company said.

He is also a mentor for The Drinks Trust’s Drink Community Mentoring Programme, which launched last year.

Last month the retailer launched a major new range called ‘Found’, comparising 12 wines from unexpected grapes and undiscovered parts of the world in a bid to tempt consumers to be more adventurous. It follows last year’s launch of the “This is” range in which all15 wines were arranged and labelled by style to make it easy for consumers to understand exactly what type of wine is in the bottle.

Shaw said he was extremely proud to join a business that had such a legacy of quality across its drinks range. “

I look forward to working with our suppliers and the M&S team to ensure that our legacy is maintained, whilst building on the brilliant initiatives and products the team has launched in the last couple of years,” he said.

Stuart Machin, managing director of M&S Food said he was delighted to welcome Shaw to the team.

“We have exceptional talent across the whole of M&S, with a brilliant mixture of new hires and experienced colleagues who are all working hard with a renewed focus, energy and determination as we come out of lockdown,” he said.

Shaw’s appointment comes as part of a wider change, which has seen the appointment of Pav Anand as director of strategy, transformation and online, Katharine Haenelt as trading director Fresh, and Jim Clifton from Morrisons, as M&S Food’s head of space, range and display.