Marks & Spencer eyes up 500 sites for new food stores across Britain – so will there be one near you?
Marks & Spencer is investigating 500 potential sites for new stores as it recovers from a devastating cyber attack that cost the company £324 million.
New plans reveal the British retailer aims to double the size of its food business as it looks for new locations.
There are currently 330 stores across the UK, but M&S hopes to have 180 mixed stores and 420 specialty food stores in the coming years.
Sites eyed for food stores include 200 locations in London.
M&S focuses most of its searches on the capital’s second and third districts; He is looking for areas of approximately 10,000 to 18,000 square meters and prime locations with large parking lots.
Earlier this week hundreds of people lined the streets for the opening of their new store on Clapham High Street.
A new store also opened in Fulham Broadway this week, and M&S Retail Director Thinus Keeve said it was “great to have such a strong pipeline of properties across London in the coming months”.
New plans reveal M&S is exploring 500 potential sites as it aims to double its food business
Earlier this week hundreds of people lined the streets for the opening of their new store on Clapham High Street
Locations examined outside London include Falmouth, Scarborough, St Andrews and Lancaster in Cornwall.
As part of its plans, M&S aims to renovate more than half of its existing stores by April 2028.
Alex Freudmann, managing director of M&S Food, told The Times: ‘The strong performance of our new M&S Food stores gives us the confidence to explore more locations in the UK than Elgin [in Scotland] to Exmouth [in Devon].
‘We are moving forward faster with more than 20 stores opening or modernizing before the end of the financial year.’
Chief executive Stuart Machin added: ‘We are gaining momentum again. In food, we continue to outperform the market with monthly volume increases for three consecutive years.’
This statement comes after the retailer suffered a cyberattack earlier this year, which left shoppers unable to shop online from the company for months.
M&S stopped orders on its website in late April and customers had to wait until June to use the store’s website again.
But M&S’s click and collect service, which allows users to order items from the website and collect them in store the next day, has taken longer to be reinstated as it was reactivated in August.
The ransomware attack is thought to have ended with many customers having their information stolen, such as their names, email addresses, mailing addresses and dates of birth.
It also resulted in shelves being left empty after the company dismantled its inventory management systems to prevent hackers from causing further damage.
M&S said in May that the attack was caused by ‘human error’ and ultimately cost the retailer £324 million.
