Marks & Spencer turns to US-based lingerie expert to revive its fortunes

In New York this week Rihanna, Justin Bieber and a four-foot Swarovski crystal python joined battalions of models to herald the launch of Victoria’s Secret’s latest lingerie range.

The glitzy televised event is a world away from the sensible smalls department at Marks Spencer, where control pants, boxed t-shirt bras and impressive feats of engineering designed for larger ladies still overshadow more glamorous items such as model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s new range.

Now the old lady of Britain’s high street is hoping Janie Schaffer, the US retailer’s chief creative officer, can bring some much-needed sparkle to its knicker department.

She will take on the role of director of lingerie and beauty at MS early next year as part of a shake-up of the retailer’s management team as chief executive Marc Bolland fights to lift stalled sales and profits.

After two years in the job, City investors are becoming impatient to see improvement, especially after Bolland revealed a slip back in half-year profits earlier this week. The Dutchman may only have a year left to prove himself and Schaffer is an important part of his strategy: MS undies – which still occupy a quarter of the UK’s combined knicker-drawers – remain one of the key products that keep customers coming through the doors, where they might be tempted to make other purchases.

Most watchers see Schaffer as an inspired appointment. In the US, the glamorous 50-year-old has played an important part in a revival of Victoria’s Secret brand in the last five years.

Back then, the US chain faced a situation which will be familiar to MS. With about a third of the US lingerie market in its control, Victoria’s Secret was struggling to fight off competition from cheaper or younger rivals and was losing profit margin and sales. A rapid increase in innovation and design led by Schaffer helped the company persuade shoppers to pay that little bit more for their undergarments and fight off tough competition. Those efforts, combined with better management and improved stock control, have lifted the company out of the doldrums.

Rahul Sharma, a retail analyst at Neev Capital, says: “The brand started to go on fire two or three years ago. It has seen off competitors in the US and it doesn’t really have any major challengers.”

Bolland can only dream Schaffer can help MS defend its 25% market share from the likes of Primark, Next and the supermarkets.

He’s also banking on Schaffer’s knowledge of the beauty market, which is an important part of Victoria’s Secret’s business. MS controls less than 3% of the beauty market in the UK and Bolland has said he sees big opportunities in enticing more of the retailer’s lingerie shoppers to buy creams and make-up.

At least Schaffer has an affinity with the MS brand: she started her career as a trainee lingerie buyer at the company when she was 21, straight out of the London School of Fashion.

Two years later, in 1986, she teamed up with her future husband Stephen Schaffer – then working in merchandising and planning at MS – to set up Knickerbox. She has said she felt she had “nothing to lose” at the time and it was clear MS was turning away some good ideas.

The pair reportedly mortgaged their flats to find the £75,000 to help set up Knickerbox which was part of a wave of small specialist outlets, such as Sock Shop and Tie Rack, that sprang up in railway stations in the late 1980s. Over the next ten years Knickerbox opened 150 stores, including outlets in Hong Kong and Japan.

In 1996 the couple sold the business for £1.3m to The Gieve Group, the owner of Savile Row tailors Gieves Hawkes, and private equity firm Candover Investments. The pair bought a palatial home overlooking Regent’s Park and Schaffer concentrated on family life and her triplet daughters, Amber, Madison and Daisy. She also did some consultancy for other brands including Oasis, where she helped develop its Odille lingerie brand.

Derek Lovelock, chairman of Aurora Fashions, the owner of Oasis, says Schaffer did a great job on Odille. “She’s got beautiful taste and she knows the customer and the market. We really enjoyed working with her,” he says. “She is very well rounded; commercial, creative and technical.”

Still it’s clear that the Schaffers picked an opportune time to step away from the Knickerbox brand. It struggled under its new owners, as the trend for small railway station stores collapsed, and finally went bust in 1997. The brand was bought by sex toy and lingerie retailer Ann Summers in 2000.

Life wasn’t all rosy for Schaffer either after selling Knickerbox. She split from her husband and in 2006 had a brief moment of tabloid notoriety after forming a relationship with Andrew Morton, the author of the royal biography Diana: Her True Story. The pair have since separated.

In 2007, Schaffer joined Victoria’s Secret where she was responsible for buying, merchandising and design for clothing and beauty as well as lingerie. She moved to New York commuting back to London every other week to see her daughters, who are in their 20s.

As Schaffer finally packs up her New York apartment she may be happy to be giving up the long commute but she faces a tough job. MS will be hoping she sticks around longer than she did in the 1980s.

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