With five brand-new, major M&S stores set to open this year in some of the UK’s biggest cities, M&S has appointed an all-women team of six managers to the lead the new openings. We sat down with our six remarksable store managers to talk about the rewards and pressures of opening new stores and their experiences with flexible working at M&S.

Between them, this formidable all-female team has more than 115 years of retail experience and will lead a combined team of over 1,000 colleagues in some of our biggest and most prominent stores. The appointment of the all-women team follows the launch of M&S – Worklife - a new flexible working offering designed to support existing colleagues to achieve a better work/life balance and help M&S to attract the best talent in the industry. With the option of either full-time or part-time hours, retail managers can also choose work a four-day compressed week or nine-day compressed fortnight.

We’ve also recently launched our M&S Job Share Finder app – a new approach to make flexible working easier for those who are able to job share, including the store manager team at the new M&S Birmingham Bullring, Naomi Hartley and Emily King who are currently busy preparing to open their new store later this year.

Store manager Justine Brook and her team opened the new 97,000 sq ft, 100% electric-powered M&S Leeds White Rose store on 25 May – which had an astonishing 750+ customers queuing up on opening morning. Kirsty Williams and her M&S Liverpool ONE team are hard at work preparing to open their new store on 15 August.

And in two of the country’s most popular shopping centres, Laura Smith – Manchester’s Trafford Centre – and Dior Hudson – Lakeside Centre in Essex – are beginning their journeys to relocate our existing stores into new retail units with an even bigger, better store offer for local customers.

Emily King & Naomi Hartley (Job Share), Birmingham Bullring

Emily and Naomi currently work as store managers together at M&S Solihull, which has been their first job share role. Having been with M&S for 18 years, both Emily and Naomi have worked across many M&S locations and have both opened new stores solo. Now, with Emily looking to balance work and family life, and Naomi wanting to find the space to pursue further professional development with a HR Consultant apprenticeship, the job share has come at the perfect time, as they start work preparing to open a major new store later this year in Birmingham’s iconic Bullring.

EMILY: “When we first started talking about the idea, Naomi and I realised that we’d actually started working at M&S on exactly the same day in September 2005 on the same retail graduate scheme. Since then we’ve followed our own career paths, but now we’re working together as a team – so this job share was obviously meant to be!”

NAOMI: “I’ve got two young children at home, so the idea of a job share was definitely motivated by wanting to be there for family. But I am also doing a HR Consultant apprenticeship alongside my store manager role, so the job share has also given me the time and space to pursue my professional development too.”

EMILY: “I remember returning to work after maternity leave and thinking that I wanted to move to working part time now that I had my two children. But I was worried that the options to progress my career could be more limited. My manager did say to me – ‘Why are you holding yourself back just because you now want to work part time?’ That was a key moment for me when I realised I could still progress, and not long after the job share opportunity with Naomi came along. So it was perfect timing for both of us.”

NAOMI: “It feels great to know that M&S is supporting me to do this – and that they’ve put their faith in Emily and me to open the new Birmingham Bullring store. Its one of M&S’s biggest new stores, so we feel really privileged to be chosen to take on such a big job. And yes, there’s a little apprehension when you think of the job ahead, but we just remind ourselves that we both have the experience working together to make this a big success.”

Justine Brook, Leeds White Rose

Justine is the store manager for the recently opened new M&S store in Leeds’ White Rose shopping centre. The new store is a homecoming of sorts for Justine, who began her 30+ year career at M&S in Leeds on a training scheme in 1986. In her time at M&S, she has worked in 27 different stores and most recently was a Regional Manager in the Midlands. With Justine looking to make a move to be closer to home in West Yorkshire, she jumped at the chance to oversee the opening of one of M&S’s biggest ever new store openings. Embracing what she calls a “squiggly” career path by returning to store management, Justine oversaw the recruitment of more than 230 new colleagues at the White Rose store and has been setting out a blueprint for the store opening process for her fellow store managers to follow later this year.

“Leading the new Leeds White Rose store opening has been an amazing moment for me. M&S started in Leeds where the business was founded in 1884 on a stall in Kirkgate market. And Leeds is also where I got my start at M&S on a youth training scheme in 1986 so it feels like a full circle moment. I’ve had so many amazing experiences since then, but I have to say that opening day in Leeds was the proudest day of my career so far!”

“I’m an active ally of the M&S Gender Equality Network and we believe that the Worklife options for a 4 day week or 9 day fortnight are a great step forward. I’m a strong believer in being a role model for my team, so I’m starting to move to a compressed working week, and actually my whole management team are opting to try it out too. I’ll be using the flexibility to spend more time with my horse which is one of my passions, but we’re all different and whatever you choose to do, it’s an opportunity to find the right work/life balance for you.”

Kirsty Williams, Liverpool ONE

Kirsty is the store manager for the new M&S Liverpool ONE store which will open later this month. She studied fashion at university but has been working in retail since her days as a student, securing a promotion to store manager before she even finished her degree. She’s been at M&S for over 10 years in total and was attracted to this new role for the challenge and reward of leading a large team of colleagues into a new store opening in one of the country’s most prominent city centre locations.

“When I found out I’d got the job in Liverpool, I was absolutely ecstatic! You definitely feel all the excitement initially, and then you take a step back and think ‘wow’ – this is a big job. It’s a privilege really – that’s how I see it.”

“To get the chance to come back to M&S and jump straight into opening a brand-new store right in the heart of Liverpool city centre – it’s a chance to make a real impact. It’s the kind of thing I know I’ll look back on in ten or twenty years’ time and say, ‘I led the team that opened that shop.’ It’s something to be really proud of and that really motivates me to work hard and make sure the store is the best it can possibly be.”

“I think the Worklife options like working a four-day week with compressed hours is great. I’m really into health and fitness and I think having that type of flexibility means you can find the time in your week to do things that matter to you. Finding that right balance helps make you a more rounded person and it means you can bring your best self to work.”

“It really makes you feel like the business is backing you and wants to support your development – and that’s something I’ve felt at every step of my career with M&S.”

Laura Smith, Manchester Trafford Centre

Laura has recently been appointed as the store manager for the new, bigger, better M&S that will open in Manchester’s Trafford Centre later this year. She first started working at M&S aged 16 helping customers to pack their bags in her local Foodhall. And after winning a place on the M&S management trainee scheme straight out of college, she was in her first store manager role by the time she was 21. She’s recently celebrated 25 years of service at M&S working at a variety of stores. One of her previous roles was managing the Foodhall at the current Trafford Centre store, so she’s particularly excited to be working again with some of her former team, as well as recruiting new colleagues to join them in the new store.

“My manager told me they’d never seen anybody react like I did when they told I’d got the job. I think I danced and did a little bit of jump in the air! Leading the team to open this new store in the Trafford Centre is an amazing opportunity and it’s basically my dream job. I think I’m most excited about the how much the offer in store is going to improve for our customers. The Foodhall is almost doubling in size and we’re going to have the space for such a wide range of Clothing, Home & Beauty products.”

“I was lucky to be part of the trial last year which led to the new Worklife options. I found the four day compressed week worked best for me and amongst all the colleagues on the trial, 75% said it had a positive impact on their family life. For me, it really transformed how I thought about work and forced me to reflect on how I can best use my time. Sometimes in the past, I had worked myself too hard and just felt burnt out on days off. But now, I find it so much easier to relax and switch off, so when I am in work, I’m able to be much more productive.”

Dior Hudson, Lakeside

Dior will be leading the team opening a brand-new M&S store in the Lakeside Centre in Thurrock, Essex. Starting her career at M&S on the annual Retail graduate scheme, this is Dior’s second large store opening following the successful launch of M&S Stevenage last year. She will mark 10 years with M&S later this year, having worked in a number of busy London stores over the past decade.

“Having the opportunity to open my first major large store last year in Stevenage was a huge milestone in my career at M&S. It’s always a steep but really rewarding learning curve when you do a job like that for the first time."

“Opening the new store in Lakeside will be a new, exciting challenge and it’s really great that this time, there’s five other store managers to go on this journey with me. It’s great to have that support system and be able to learn from each other’s experiences as every store is different and has its own challenges and rewards.”