Marks & Spencer to deliver biggest ever store opening month

Marks & Spencer is opening nine new stores throughout November as it continues to strengthen its brick and mortar offer throughout the UK. 

Kicking off with a new 65,000 sq ft store in Birmingham on 7 November, Marks & Spencer said it will open at least one store every seven days throughout the month.

The openings include six new stores and three store renewals, totalling a £80 million investment in brick and mortar retail and supporting over 2,200 local jobs across the UK.

The three new full line stores in Birmingham Bullring, Lakeside Thurrock and Manchester Trafford Centre are all store relocations, part of the retailer's investment to regenerate vacant sites.

Meanwhile, the three store renewals boast fresh market-style foodhalls and updated clothing, home and beauty departments. M&S is also opening three standalone foodhalls in Uckfield, Earlsfield and Barnsley throughout the month.

The openings form part of Marks & Spencer's goal to become "the UK's leading omnichannel retailer", with its store rotation programme at the centre of this ambition.

The retailer is aiming to rotate from a base of 247 stores to 180 "high quality, higher productivity" full line stores thats sell its clothing, home and food ranges, while also opening over 100 "bigger and better" food sites by FY27/28.

Sacha Berendji, Operations Director at Marks & Spencer, said: "Stores are key to our business, and we see them as part of our competitive advantage. Increasing numbers of customers are heading back in to stores to experience the best of M&S all under one roof, supported by outstanding service from our colleagues, and we expect this to continue as we head into Christmas.

"Our biggest ever store opening month also supports thousands of jobs is an outstanding effort from the team and shows just how serious we are about accelerating our rotation plans so we are in the right locations for our customers."

Alongside the store openings, M&S recently announced it is hiring over 10,000 new Customer Assistants to support in its stores over the festive period.

The vacancies represent a 40% increase on last year and reflects the additional investment M&S is making in colleague hours to support customers on the shop floor.