He started off as a shelf stacker and more than three decades later has climbed to the top of the ladder to be the boss of a global retail chain.

Growing up in Gillingham, Stuart Machin is a prime example of how starting off at grassroots level has led him to the top job at Marks & Spencer.

Stuart was just 16 when he got a Saturday job at Sainsbury’s at Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre.

He earned £3.80 an hour which he spent on records until he was 17 when he started to save up to buy his first car, a Mini Metro.

At the time he had ambitions of going to university to train to be a a religious studies teacher.

Little did he know that this step into the retail world for pocket money would shape his career for years to come.

The former Howard School pupil fell in love with the job, offered to work extra shifts and so his journey began.

He went on to work at Tesco and Asda in increasingly senior roles and spent 10 years in Australia before returning to the UK in 2017.

The following year he was headhunted by Mark’s at a time when M&S Food was under-performing and Stuart managed to get it back on track.

He was closely involved in the recent massive makeover of the food hall at Hempstead, ironically where his family still shop regularly.

He said: “After finishing my A-levels, I was offered a place at university, but at the last minute I changed my mind and decided to stick with retail.”

Stuart’s story makes him the ideal candidate to steer the way for the store’s new recruitment drive.

He said: “Put simply, I loved the excitement retail offered. Serving and selling to customers, working in a team, the opportunity to progress.

“My job gave me purpose, I worked hard, and took every overtime shift I was offered that involved collecting trolleys, working on the checkouts and filling the shelves overnight.

“By the age of 21, when my friends were just getting their first jobs after graduating, I was running my own department, with my own team of colleagues, accountable for the department’s sales, service and profitability.”

By the time he was 28, Stuart was a store director of a large hypermarket and with £100 million in sales a year was effectively running his own business with 1,000 staff.

Last May he landed the top job as chief executive and with it he introduced his own style of work practices. He earns, according to some reports, £800,000.

He launched Straight to Stuart, a scheme that encourages employees to share views and ideas to improve the business.

A bowel cancer survivor suggested having symptoms of the disease listed on toilet roll packaging and in-store toilets.

Another proposal adopted was to invite staff with a stammer or speech impediment to wear a corresponding symbol on a badge.

Now living in south London, his hobbies include music theatre, politics, food and fashion.

Dame Joan Collins, a huge M&S aficionado, whom he describes as a “British icon” and the actor Christopher Biggins are among his dining-out companions.

He holds the title of being the company’s third biggest buyer of menswear and has dabbled in politics clashing with Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove over his decision to call in the proposal to demolish and rebuild the flagship Marble Arch branch.

He loves travelling but says a lot of his spare time is spent dropping into stores across the country and walking his dog, Kostas.

One of his biggest fans is his mum who lives in Hempstead and visits her nearest store at the shopping centre virtually every day.

He said: “As people get older, they still want quality and still want to be stylish. My mother is in her 70s but she doesn’t want to feel like she’s in her 70s.”

Although his lifestyle today may be worlds apart from the teenage years he spent doing shifts at Hempstead Valley, one thing does remain the same.

“I loved the buzz of retail and still do! Interacting with customers, working with some great colleagues. It grew my confidence and felt worthwhile and fulfilling,” he said.

The M&S early careers programme is open to school leavers who can complete a degree-equivalent apprenticeship and graduates.

The company has quadrupled the number of places available for 2024 with candidates offered training in three categories, clothing and home, retail and food.

The school leaver apprenticeship retail leader programme is 36 months and it’s 24 months for the business graduate programme.