M&S planning to open 20 new stores with £480m investment
M&S has announced it plans to spend nearly half a billion (£480m) into investment in its stores for the 2023/24 financial year.
The retailer says its investment will create over 3,400 jobs across the country and aims to create a store estate which is fit for the future.
At its recent investor day, M&S shared its plans to accelerate a five-year store rotation programme, and said it had already identified a pipeline of 20 stores to be opened in the next financial year.
M&S added that its new and recently renewed stores had exceeded its expectations, with clothing and home sales increasing in Colchester and Llandudno by 26% and 35% respectively, with food sales up 75% in the Welsh store. The newly expanded M&S food store in Oatlands in Harrogate also saw a sales increase of 26%.
The retailer also praised the performance of its new 46,000 sq ft store at Ravenside Retail Park in Chesterfield, having relocated from its ageing town centre site and seeing an increase in sales of 103% in December compared to the previous year.
M&S said its investment in its store rotation programme aims to create an estate of 180 full line stores and 420 owned food stores by the 2025/26 financial year.
The new store pipeline includes 8 stores in key city locations including a new 97,000 sq ft store in Leeds White Rose and a 70,000 sq ft store at Liverpool ONE, both due to open in Summer 2023. Later in the year, other major stores are set to open, including a 65,000 sq ft store in Birmingham Bullring, a 96,000 sq ft store in Manchester’s Trafford Centre and a 98,000 sq ft store in Lakeside Thurrock.
Stuart Machin, chief executive of M&S commented: “Stores are a core part of M&S’s omni-channel future and serve as a competitive advantage for how customers want to shop today. Our store rotation programme is about making sure we have the right stores, in the right place, with the right space and we’re aiming to rotate from the 247 stores we have today to 180 higher quality, higher productivity full line stores that sell our full clothing, home and food offer whilst also opening over 100 bigger, better food sites.”