IT’S NOT JUST ANY STORE
M&S reveals full list of locations it plans to open ‘new and improved’ stores this year – is your area getting one?
We've revealed the new locations...
MARKS & Spencer has revealed where it will open a host of "new and improved" stores.
Nine brand new food locations will be unveiled across Britain this year, starting as early as next week.
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Marks and Sparks also revealed it had future plans to open four new "full-line" stores, which stock everything from clothes to homeware.
One will open next week at the Galleries shopping centre in Washington, near Sunderland.
Doors are expected to swing open at the "bigger, better, fresher" branch at 9am on May 30.
It will open just a few doors down from the current Simply Food store at Galleries, which closes on May 29.
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Several other locations were announced in M&S's full year results.
Among them is a new Foodhall at Guildford's Ladymead Retail Park in Surrey, opening on June 30.
Meanwhile Gallagher Retail Park in Dundee will open a new store in the summer but an exact date is yet to be confirmed.
Another Foodhall will open in Largs, Ayrshire, in 2025.
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M&S has been approached for details on more openings which we will update you with in due course.
Earlier this month, the high street retailer closed its store in Bradford's city centre.
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Vickie Smith, M&S regional manager, said: "We would like to thank all customers who have shopped with us at our Bradford Broadway store.
"The store will close on May 18 and we are continuing discussions with colleagues about what this decision means for them.
"Wherever possible, we will offer them alternative roles with M&S.
"Shopping habits are changing and so we’re rotating our store estate to make sure we have the right stores in the right place and with the right space."
OTHER M&S CLOSURES
It comes as part of M&S's plans to shake up its high street store presence, closing 110 branches but opening 100.
In October 2022, the posh retailer announced that 67 "lower productivity" branches would shut down over the following five years.
The 67 sites came as part of a wider radical restructuring plan first announced in 2016, which aimed to close 110 stores by 2022.
The retailer which runs 405 stores across the country, shut down locations in Manchester, Swindon and Birmingham between August and November last year.
The retailer has recently announced a proposal to close its Redhill store in Surrey.
The store is located in the Belfry Shopping Centre in Redhill and locals say that closing the store would "kill the town".
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
The high street has seen a whole raft of closures over the past year, and more are coming.
The number of jobs lost in British retail dropped last year, but 120,000 people still lost their employment, figures have suggested.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed that 10,494 shops closed for the last time during 2023, and 119,405 jobs were lost in the sector.
It was fewer shops than had been lost for several years, and a reduction from 151,641 jobs lost in 2022.
The centre's director, Professor Joshua Bamfield, said the improvement is "less bad" than good.
Although there were some big-name losses from the high street, including Wilko, many large companies had already gone bust before 2022, the centre said, such as Topshop owner Arcadia, Jessops and Debenhams.
"The cost-of-living crisis, inflation and increases in interest rates have led many consumers to tighten their belts, reducing retail spend," Prof Bamfield said.
"Retailers themselves have suffered increasing energy and occupancy costs, staff shortages and falling demand that have made rebuilding profits after extensive store closures during the pandemic exceptionally difficult."
Alongside Wilko, which employed around 12,000 people when it collapsed, 2023's biggest failures included Paperchase, Cath Kidston, Planet Organic and Tile Giant.
The Centre for Retail Research said most stores were closed because companies were trying to reorganise and cut costs rather than the business failing.
However, experts have warned there will likely be more failures this year as consumers keep their belts tight and borrowing costs soar for businesses.
The Body Shop and Ted Baker are the biggest names to have already collapsed into administration this year.
M&S also announced the closure of its Walworth store in South London, and its home store in Kingditch Trading Estate in Tewkesbury, Cheltenham.
If you want to know if your local might be next, we have the full list of M&S stores that are marked for closure in 2024.
However, it is not all bad news for the retailer, or shoppers as in January 2023, it announced it would open 20 more stores over the financial year.
At the same time, it said it's opening 104 new "bigger and fresher" food stores.
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In the last 12 months, it has opened 22 sites including in Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.
Marks and Spencer is not the only retailer shaking things up in a bid to survive the ongoing difficult retail climate.
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