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Becky Brock, mission director at John Lewis Partnership, is leaving the retail business at the end of September to join Costa Coffee as commercial and customer director.

Nina Bhatia, executive director, strategy and commercial development, confirmed Brock’s departure in an email to colleagues. It is the latest in a string of changes this year as part of which both former John Lewis & Partners customer director Craig Inglis and managing director Paula Nickolds have left the business.

Brock joined John Lewis in 2017 as marketing director, the second-most senior marketing role at the department store after Inglis. She was previously marketing director at outdoor retailer Snow & Rock, and before that worked at Homebase, Unilever and spirits company The Edrington Group.

Earlier this year, Brock was handed the new role of mission director in the strategy and commercial development team, in which, according to Bhatia, “her focus has been on transforming our capability to deliver a personalised digital experience for our customers across all touchpoints” as well as being the business lead for John Lewis within the Partnership’s strategic review. 

Brock's new role appears to have coincided with a plan to combine the marketing teams of John Lewis and Waitrose, which was announced last autumn and has since been partially reversed. The change would originally have resulted in Nickolds taking up the new role of executive director brand; instead, she left the business, with separate executive directors appointed for the two brands. 

Meanwhile, in February, senior marketer Lorna Brown, who joined John Lewis in 2014, was appointed as head of marketing planning across both brands, according to LinkedIn. But only four months later, her role changed to head of brand marketing and marketing planning for John Lewis only.

In July, chairman Sharon White revealed a strategic plan for JLP that could move the business in radical new directions in an effort to weather the storm of the coronavirus pandemic.

A Costa Coffee spokesperson said: "Becky will join Costa Coffee in November from the John Lewis Group and brings with her a breadth of commercial, digital/brand marketing and category management experience. We look forward to welcoming Becky and drawing on her expertise and experience to help to serve more cups of great coffee, to more people, more often.”