A major chain is set to close a flagship shop in a UK city this weekend. The store has been operating since 1929 but has failed to recover since Covid and will shut for good tomorrow, Saturday, September 27.
The Marks and Spencer store on Dudley Street in Wolverhampton will close after bosses said the shop had “never fully recovered” from the impact of the pandemic. As of June, there were a total of 1,047 M&S shops across the UK, including 895 in England. However, the retailer is now set to reduce its number of full-line stores and focus more on Foodhall locations.
As reported by the BBC, Calum Telford, regional manager at M&S, thanked staff “past and present” at the store in Wolverhampton. However, bosses have vowed to remain committed to staying in the city with Mr Telford adding the “search continues for a suitable alternative food location”.
Wolverhampton Council is working alongside M&S to find a new location in the city, as well as support staff and their families. It is not yet known how many staff are losing their jobs with the company previously saying they would be offered alternative roles where possible.
City council leader Stephen Simkins said M&S could make a return to the Banks’s Brewery site in the city. There is also speculation that a new M&S Food outlet could open on the St John’s Retail Park in Wolverhampton.
In 2022, M&S announced it intended to open an extra 100 food halls by April 2026. The retailer also confirmed plans to reduce the number of traditional department store openings from 247 to 180.
Mr Telford said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to all our customers who have shopped at M&S Wolverhampton over the years and to our colleagues, past and present. We remain committed to Wolverhampton and our search continues for a suitable alternative food location in the city.
“In the meantime, we will continue working hard to serve customers at our stores across the Black Country, including Merry Hill and our Wednesbury food hall.”
A council spokesperson previously said: “It will be sad to see M&S leave the Dudley Street store at the end of September – but they remain committed to Wolverhampton and we are working with them to identify suitable locations that fit their new business model.
“We appreciate how unsettling this is for staff, and the council’s Wolves at Work employment support team is connected with M&S to support workers and their families.
“We are also keen to see the privately-owned Dudley Street site brought back into use quickly. As everyone knows, town and city centres across the country are changing, and we fully understand M&S’s difficult decision was driven by wider, changing market conditions and customer behaviour.”
