FDBusiness.com

Marcs & Spencer plans to open over 200 new Simply Food stores by the end of 2018/19. The continued roll out of its Simply Food outlets is part of a five-year plan to improve productivity of the retail group’s UK store estate by repositioning about 25% of Clothing & Home space with costs of in the region of £50 million per annum for the first three years.

Steve Rowe, chief executive of M&S, explains: “In May, we laid out a number of questions which we would answer as part of our strategic review. We committed to creating a simpler business with customers at its heart, and taking action to start to recover our Clothing & Home business and continue to grow in Food. We have now completed a forensic review of our estate both in the UK and in our International markets. Over the next five years we will transform our UK estate with c.60 fewer Clothing & Home stores, whilst continuing to increase the number of our Simply Food stores. In the future, we will have more inspiring stores in places where customers want to shop that complement our growing digital offer.”

He continues: “Internationally, we propose to cease trading in ten loss making owned markets, but intend to continue to develop our presence through our strong franchise partners. These are tough decisions, but vital to building a future M&S that is simpler, more relevant, multi-channel and focused on delivering sustainable returns.”