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Colin the Caterpillar could be coming to a town centre near you. After a particularly successful year for the department store, M&S has announced that it will be investing £480 million into a string of ‘bigger and better’ shops over the next year.
Want to know more about the plans? Here’s everything we know so far.
Where are M&S opening new stores?
Only six out of eight full department stores have been announced. They are:
- Purley Way, Croydon
- White Rose Centre, Leeds
- Liverpool ONE
- Bullring, Birmingham
- Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock
- Trafford Centre, Manchester
There will also be 12 new food halls, the majority of which are yet to be announced. Here are the three that have been confirmed:
- Stockport
- Largs, North Ayrshire
- Barnsley
When are the stores opening?
The new stores will open in 2023 or 2024, starting with the Croydon, Leeds, Stockport and Liverpool sites this summer.
What can we expect from the new Marks and Spencer’s stores?
Each store is set to be built ‘with local families in mind’. This means that aisles will be wider, allowing for easier browsing. There will be new market-style food halls, free parking for shoppers and sustainable elements including ‘fill your own’ stations.
Which stores are closing?
In October 2022, M&S announced that 67 stores would close over the next five years in an effort to save £300 million. Most of the closures are still to be announced, but the Middlesbrough branch, which opened all the way back in 1901, is definitely set to close, and so too is M&S Deansgate in Bolton.
What have M&S said?
Stuart Machin, the chief executive of M&S, said: ‘The outperformance of our recently relocated and renewed stores gives us the confidence to go faster in our plan. Our investment in stores not only delivers a better experience for customers and colleagues, it boosts local communities with new job creation and will help us deliver a more sustainable estate in every sense.’
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