Marks & Spencer has announced it is closing 11 cafes in its smaller food shops. The shake-up is part of a £300million investment and store rotation programme, which is set to increase the number of M&S food halls. The closures will only affect 4% of the group’s 316 food shops. No jobs will be cut as a result, and impacted staff will maintain roles in their stores. The retailer said on Monday it the decision comes as it aims to create space for more popular products.
An M&S spokesman said: “As we look to modernise our food business and offer the best of M&S Food to more people, more often, we’re investing in our store estate to give our customers the widest possible product range. This includes opening brand-new coffee shops offering delicious food and barista-made fairtrade coffee, including at our brand-new Bristol Cabot Circus store. In some of our small Food stores, where customers want a greater range of M&S Food, our transformation also involves repurposing cafe space across 11 small food stores, out of over 300 M&S cafes, coffee shop and coffee to go locations.”
M&S wants to grow to around 420 food stores by the end of 2028. The shake-up has seen the business transform some full-line stores into food stores, with some other food-only stores receiving investment to modernise their operations and serve more customers.
M&S is recovering from a cyber attack in April, which forced them to stop online orders and would, according to investors, cost the retailer around £300million.
Customer personal data, potentially including names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, was taken during the attack. Click and collect — which lets customers order products online and pick them up in-store the following day — was the final major service to be reinstated in August.
Earlier this year, M&S said it would open six Foodhalls across London and renew nearly a dozen sites after committing £90million to the investment. This follows a previous £30million investment made last year, and the extra £50million investment in stores across the Northwest of England.
New Foodhalls are set to open in Covent Garden, Leytonstone, Clapham Common, Putney, New Malden and Fulham Broadway, with completion expected over the next few years, subject to planning approval, according to M&S.