M&S is opening new stores and freshening up a swathe of others in a boost for shoppers.
In a fresh update, the posh retailer said it will pull up the shutters on two new branches and refresh 12 more across London as part of a £30million investment.
The two new foodhalls will open in Sidcup and Friern Barnet on June 19 and August respectively.
Meanwhile, stores in Brixton Road, Chancery Lane, Teddington and Blackheath are set for renovation this summer.
The 12 stores will reopen with bigger in-store bakeries, dedicated flower and wine shops and click and collect services.
The latest round of investment comes as part of M&S’ store rotation programme, which aims to operate 180 full-line stores and 420 foodhalls across the UK.
Read more in Marks and Spencer
M&S currently runs 80 stores across Greater London and has invested over £20million in its London store estate in recent years.
Sacha Berendji, operations director at M&S, said: “We cannot wait to bring the magic of M&S to even more customers across the capital.
“Expanding our presence in London is a key part of our growth strategy – our market share in food is higher here than any region in England and there is plenty of untapped potential.”
It’s not just larger stores M&S is investing in across London – it is also expanding its convenience store presence too.
A new convenience branch opened in Queensway in April and another store is set to open in Shaftesbury Avenue this summer.
An exact date it will open has not yet been revealed.
Fifteen M&S convenience shops will be updated across London too, including branches in Surbiton, Marylebone and Paddington.
It comes following a string of Marks and Spencer store closures as part of radical restructuring plans announced by bosses.
Branches in Manchester and Swindon have all closed since August last year.
In total, the chain has said it wants to close 67 “lower productivity” sites between 2022 and 2027.
List of stores M&S is opening or refreshing
M&S has revealed details for seven of the stores set to open or earmarked for renovation.
Store openings
- Sidcup – opening June 19
- Friern Barnet – opening August
Renewals
- Brixton Road – expected Summer 2024
- Chancery Lane – expected Summer 2024
- Blackheath – expected Summer 2024
- Teddington – expected Summer 2024
- Islington – expected early 2025
But last week, it confirmed it had delivered some of its best results in almost 30 years.
The posh retailer said it has gained a million new customers, as its boss Stuart Machin ruled out introducing exclusive discounts to products for loyalty card customers.
Total M&S sales rose by 9.3% to £13billion in the year to March – and pre-tax profits spiked by 41% to £672.5million.
Its shares have also climbed by 76% in the past year to 287.8p, with the company now valued at £5.6billion.
OTHER M&S OPENINGS
Earlier this month, M&S unveiled a separate list of locations where it wants to open “new and improved” stores.
The retailer said nine new food locations will be unveiled across the UK, starting from this week.
The store at the Galleries shopping centre in Washington, near Sunderland, opened today at 9am.
It opened just down the road from its Simply Food store which closed yesterday.
M&S is also opening a new foodhal at Guildford’s Ladymead Retail Park in Surrey, on June 30.
Meanwhile Gallagher Retail Park in Dundee will open a new store in the summer but an exact date is yet to be confirmed.
Another Foodhall will open in Largs, Ayrshire, in 2025.
OTHER M&S CLOSURES
In October 2022, M&S announced 67 “lower productivity” branches would shut down over the following five years.
The 67 sites came as part of a wider radical restructuring plan first announced in 2016, which aimed to close 110 stores by 2022.
The retailer, which runs 405 stores across the country, shut down locations in Peterborough, Cheltenham and Birmingham between August and November last year.
The retailer recently announced a proposal to close its Redhill store in Surrey.
The store is located in the Belfry Shopping Centre in Redhill and locals say that closing the store would “kill the town”.
M&S also announced the closure of its Walworth store in South London, and its home store in Kingditch Trading Estate in Tewkesbury, Cheltenham.
If you want to know if your local might be next, we have the full list of M&S stores that are marked for closure in 2024.
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