Beverley Aspinall will not be needing to prove her retail credentials to her upmarket new employers.

The former managing director of Peter Jones has been poached by Fortnum & Mason to occupy the same role at the celebrated department store group.

Ms Aspinall, 45, has spent her entire career working for the John Lewis Partnership.

Equipped with a BA in linguistics from the University of York, she joined the company in 1981 as a fresh-faced graduate trainee at John Lewis on Oxford Street.

Over the next decade and a half, Ms Aspinall moved through the ranks of John Lewis, across departments and throughout the country.

She was appointed managing director of Peter Jones in 1997 and two years later added the role of project director. Her most lauded achievement at the group was overseeing the five-year, £100 million-plus redevelopment of the Peter Jones store in Chelsea.

Married with a young son and daughter, her interests include opera and classical music — she played second oboe in the John Lewis Music Society Orchestra. She also relaxes by gardening, swimming and going to the gym.