// Ben Hougham, who led the Amazon’s roll-out of 4-star outside of the US, will join M&S next week
// Amazon decided to close of its 4-star stores worldwide earlier this year
Amazon head of store design Ben Hougham, who led the development of its short-lived 4-stars chain, is set to join M&S.
Hougham was tasked with the UK expansion of Amazon 4-star, the retail store that sold trending products that were rated four stars or above on the online giant’s website,
He opened the first Amazon 4-star UK store in Bluewater in October last year, which it followed up with a store in Westfield London.
READ MORE: Amazon to close all its bookstores in US and UK as its grocery chain expands
Hougham, who spent two years at Amazon, joins M&S next week as innovation hub manager and will “enable new store design innovation to flow into our stores seamlessly”, according to an M&S spokesman.
He will work on M&S’ transformative store renewal programme, which is modernising the way the retailer brings its products to customer. The retailer describes the strategy as “all about creating magical stores that offer the efficiency of a supermarket and the soul of a fresh food market”.
The retailer will carry out 40 store renewals in its current financial year and these shops will have increased produce, bakery, ambient grocery and frozen ranges, as well as innovative concepts like Fill Your Own, Percy Pig World, and wine tasting.
Just last month it opened its new concept store at the former Debenhams store at the Roaring Meg retail park in Stevenage, which included a wine-tasting zone and a refill station for products including pasta, rice and cereal.
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