The closures are part of M&S’ plan to restructure its business and put more focus on its food-only stores. Under these plans, M&S said it wanted to reduce its “full line” stores from 247 to 180 by 2028 and open 104 more Simply Food shops
M&S is closing more stores over the coming months – with one branch set to shut for good next week.
The closures are part of the upmarket supermarket’s plan to restructure its business and put more focus on its food-only stores. M&S wants to reduce its “full line” stores from 247 to 180 by 2028 and open 104 more Simply Food shops. On the closures, M&S CEO Stuart Machin said the company will now focus on “making sure we have the right stores, in the right place, with the right space”.
The next M&S site to close will be its Queensgate Shopping Centre store in Peterborough on April 20. The site was initially going to be closed in January but was delayed. The closure will see the closest M&S stores be the Serpentine Green Foodhall and Brotherhood Retail Park store.
An M&S spokesperson said: “We would like to thank all our customers who have shopped in the store. In recent years we have invested over £31million in our stores in the East of England and we will keep serving our customers at our nearby Serpentine Green Foodhall and Brotherhood Retail Park store.”
At the time, regional manager Craig Burton said the move was down to “changing shopping habits” which meant M&S had to “rotate” its store estate. He also noted that all employees at the store would be offered “alternative roles with M&S wherever possible”.
Have you spotted an M&S store closing that’s not on our list? Let us know! – [email protected]
Approximately nine more stores will reportedly follow the closure of the Peterborough branch. The next closure is set to be the retailer’s Neath branch in Wales. Earlier this year, Welsh minister Sioned Williams MS wrote to M&S noting that the closure would be an “enormous blow” to the town.
In her letter, she said: “The Marks & Spencer store in Neath has a long history of serving the people of this whole area, and its importance to the town cannot be overstated. The store closure would be a hammer blow to the town centre, and the impact will be felt by all the other businesses there, not to mention the people who live in, work in and visit Neath. For this reason I have written to both Marks & Spencer and the council to request further information relating to the process following the announcement and the support that will be made available to staff should the store close.”
Conservative regional MS for South Wales West, Altaf Hussain also echoed concerns about the store closure plans. He said: “I want them to come to Neath in person to see for themselves what a large and well managed store they have here and realise that it is worth fighting to keep.”
M&S has not released a full list of all the stores it has earmarked for closure, but here is what we know so far, based on local reports. The Mirror has approached M&S for comment.
Full list of M&S stores earmarked for closure
-
Queensgate Shopping Centre, Peterborough – April 20, 2024
-
Green Street, Neath – May 2024
-
St Nicholas Street, Aberdeen – 2025
-
St Mary Street, Weymouth – exact date to be confirmed
-
High Street West, Sunderland – exact date to be confirmed
-
Maidens Walk, Hexham – exact date to be confirmed
-
Broadway Shopping Centre, Bradford – exact date to be confirmed
-
Exchange, Ilford, East London – exact date to be confirmed
-
King William Street, Blackburn – exact date to be confirmed
-
Walworth Road, Walworth, South London – exact date to be confirmed
