Marks & Spencer is set to open 12 new stores in former Homebases, following a month-long cyberattack. The retailer believe it will open some of its biggest food stores and create hundreds of jobs in the process.
Twelve Homebase sites are being purchased to be converted into enormous standalone food stores. M&S is planning on opening eight of these by July 2026, subject to planning permission. Sites include Abingdon in Oxfordshire, Cannock in Staffordshire, Farnham and Godalming in Surrey, and Northampton. The retailer is also planning larger car parks and introducing a coffee bakery.
Chief executive Stuart Machin told The Times: “Investing in new and renewed stores is one of our key transformation priorities. Securing these highly desirable sites in priority locations will accelerate this strategy, drive further growth in our M&S food business and, most importantly, give our customers the best possible M&S shopping experience.”
Homebase went into administration in November 2024. CDS, which owns the Range, bought 70 stores and owns the brand online. This left 49 stores closed.
This comes after a month-long cyberattack that saw shelves empty and cancelled online orders, which Machin called a “bump in the road.” Profits suffered a £300 million hit.
But not all saw it as a catastrophe. Ian Lance, fund manager at Redwheel (M&S’s fourth largest shareholder), said that the retailer did an “absolutely fantastic job” navigating the crisis.
“They haven’t sought to panickily reopen. They basically said, ‘Right, we’re just going to take this thing down for as long as it takes’ and we will bring it back up when they are 100% sure that the new system is safe. I respect that,” Lance said.
He added: “By the sounds of it, the hackers basically tried to hack systems and couldn’t. And therefore, they went the old-fashioned route, which is that they rang the help desk, which was run by a third party.
“So that’s tough. Because you can invest in the most sophisticated anti-hacking software … but these people got in the old-fashioned way, as a result of someone not following the internal guidelines.”