UK’s Marks & Spencer Eyes More Food Halls, Less Apparel

British retailer M&S is making investments focused on offering food and an omnichannel experience.

The firm is investing 480 million pounds (about $586 million) to open 20 new stores across the United Kingdom within the next year, including eight full-line clothing, home, and food stores and 12 food halls, M&S said in a Monday (Jan. 16) press release.

“Stores are a core part of M&S’s omnichannel future and serve as a competitive advantage for how customers want to shop today,” M&S CEO Stuart Machin said in the release.

This investment comes at a time when U.K. retailers have seen a decline in retail volume due to a cost-of-living crisis that is putting pressure on household spending.

In 2022, more than 17,000 retail stores closed shop in the U.K.

To combat this pressure in the food category, M&S has “invested in value” by locking prices on more than 100 popular items. This offering came in response to the “unprecedented inflation” that consumers have faced in the food category, the company said in an October investor day presentation.

Together with opening the new stores, M&S is investing in new digital offerings. These include rolling out its Digital Click & Collect — a self-service option that speeds up the in-store pickup of items ordered online — in 130 stores, according to the Monday press release.

The firm is also expanding the use of Scan & Shop, which lets customers scan items with their mobile phone as they shop, bag them and then pay via the M&S app, the release said.

M&S reported in its October investor day presentation that stores touch 65% of online orders and that customers who shop across channels spend four times more than those who use only one channel.

“Our store rotation program is about making sure we have the right stores, in the right place, with the right space and we’re aiming to rotate from the 247 stores we have today to 180 higher quality, higher productivity full line stores that sell our full clothing, home and food offer whilst also opening over 100 bigger, better food sites,” Machin said in the release.

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