IT was a carefully worked-out plan that had been more than four months in the making – the biggest shake-up of Marks & Spencer’s senior management on Stuart Rose’s watch.

But the retail supremo’s cover was almost blown when news leaked earlier this month that Terry Green, head of clothing at the supermarket giant Tesco, was in secret talks to join the business. The revelation of the discussions killed the deal, and Green signed a new contract with Tesco.

However, it has emerged in the past few days that Green would have formed only part of a much broader hiring spree. Steven Esom, the former chief executive of Waitrose, has been poached from the supermarket chain to head the M&S food business as director of food. Carl Leaver, the former boss of De Vere, the leisure group, has been recruited to lead M&S’s international division.

Existing M&S stars have also been promoted – Kate Bostock, director of womenswear and girlswear, has been given extra responsibility for lingerie, while Guy Farrant, former head of food, becomes retail director, replacing Anthony Thompson who was ousted.

The signings could help Rose to solve the “succession issue” and place food and international expansion at the heart of M&S’s strategy.

When Rose joined M&S three years ago he pledged to spend five years at the helm. But despite having at least two years left under that time frame, he has led such a spectacular recovery that the City wants to make sure that, when the M&S boss does go, he leaves the company in safe hands.

With these new, big-name signings combining with two significant promotions, analysts were last week speculating that the boardroom reshuffle in effect sounded the starting pistol on the race for one of the biggest jobs in British retailing.

“Rose has created a gang of four around him, who have all been given a platform to excel,” said Jonathan Pritchard, retail analyst at Oriel Securities. “Now all of them will be gearing up for the fight of their lives and the prize is pretty significant.”

Rose, for his part, was keen last week to play down talk of the race to replace him.

“Let’s be clear, I’m not going anywhere – but I have to bring in DNA to refresh the body. We are bringing together a mix of talent from which I can draw,” he said.

Richard Hyman, retail analyst at Verdict Research, has no doubt that the new recruits and promotions are all top-drawer executives, but he is not convinced any one of them is an obvious successor to Rose.

“He will be a pretty tough act to follow. He has the rare combination of being charismatic and fantastic with the City as well as being good on strategy and good on the trading floor,” said Hyman.

Of the new “gang of four”, Bostock is tipped as the one to watch. She joined the business from George at Asda in 2004 and is now the top woman at M&S. She has helped M&S to boost its market share in womenswear from 9.9% in 2005 to 11.3% by March this year.

Hyman believes that Bostock has not received sufficient credit for the turnround at the company. “Womenswear is the fulcrum of the M&S business. If you get it right the rest should follow,” he said. “Bostock has given M&S womenswear a point of view, a confidence that it hasn’t had for an awful long time.”

Hyman describes Bostock as energetic and focused. “She has been pivotal in restoring M&S’s value-for-money credentials and its fashion credentials, both of which had been lacking for some time.”

A company insider said: “Fast fashion was unheard of at M&S; now part of the range is refreshed every month.”

Meanwhile, the arrival of Leaver and Esom should bring fresh momentum to the food and international businesses.

Rose said: “We are building a team for the right time as we move away from recovery and into growth mode.”

M&S already has 219 overseas stores, held through franchise and joint-venture agreements, but it has big gaps in its portfolio – most notably in western Europe and China.

The company, which dismantled its overseas store network under the previous boss Luc Vandevelde, has just opened in Vilnius in Lithuania, and a store is due to open in Taiwan next month.

Leaver will be in charge of drawing up the strategy for overseas expansion and assessing where M&S should open new stores.

The food business also has huge scope for growth. The company has started rolling out Simply Food stores at petrol stations under a deal with BP to open more than 200 sites. The first have opened in Tunbridge Wells, Borehamwood in north London and Banbury.

Plans are under way to expand its new “hot food to go” outlets, M&S restaurants and delicatessen.

The group is also continuing to experiment with new healthy eating and organic ranges, and is looking to expand the range of wine and party foods it sells on the internet.

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