M&S announces £30m investment into Scottish estate
Marks & Spencer has announced it will invest £30m into its Scottish bricks-and-mortar estate, with plans to deliver over five new and expanded stores over the next 18 months.
The plans include a £15m investment for Aberdeen Union Square which will see the store almost double in size. In what is one of the largest private sector investments in Aberdeen for several years, the store will feature a market-style food hall as well as bigger clothing, home, and beauty departments. Opening in spring 2025, the store will become the retailer’s fourth-largest in Scotland.
Rachel Rankine, North East regional manager for M&S, said: “The scale of our investment is a vote of confidence in the future of retail in Aberdeen city centre, with a flagship store on the same scale as city centre stores in Birmingham and Liverpool. Where we have already invested in new formats, our customers have responded to the destination shopping experience and Aberdeen shoppers can look forward to having a bigger, better, fresher food hall and the best in M&S clothing and home.”
In the northeast of Scotland, the retailer will also be delivering an M&S foodhall in Linlithgow later this month, whilst opening a full-line store in Dundee’s Gallagher Retail Park this summer. M&S will also open in Largs for the first time with a new foodhall due to open in early 2025.
This £30m investment adds to £32m already invested in eleven Scottish stores over the last four years – including new foodhalls in Paisley, Hamilton and East Kilbride.
The investment reflects M&S’s ambition to become the UK’s leading omnichannel retailer. The retailer is aiming to reposition a base of 247 stores across the UK to 180 higher quality, higher productivity full-line stores, while also opening over 100 food sites by the 2027/28 financial year.
Beyond this investment, M&S has already opened eleven new and renewed stores over the last four years in Scotland, including new food halls in Straiton (Edinburgh), Hamilton, Falkirk Central, Cumbernauld, East Kilbride and Paisley alongside renewals and expansions in Glasgow Silverburn, Edinburgh Gyle, Anniesland, Glasgow West End and Bishopbriggs, as well as two recently-opened convenience stores in Glasgow Battlefield and Glasgow Queen Street.
At the beginning of the year, fellow retailer Aldi announced its plans to invest £56m into its Scottish portfolio, opening three new stores in 2024.