M&S to close 11 cafes as part of estate overhaul

Marks and Spencer is to close 11 cafés across its smaller food stores as part of an ongoing restructuring of its retail estate.The company said the move aims to create more space for its range of M&S food products. 

According to The Independent, no jobs will be lost, and all affected staff will be redeployed to other roles within their stores. 

The closures will affect fewer than 4% of the group’s 316 food shops in total.

An M&S spokesperson told Retail Sector: “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.” 

They added: “In some of our small Food stores, where customers want a greater range of M&S Food, our transformation also involves re-purposing café space across eleven small food stores, out of over 300 M&S cafés, Coffee Shop and coffee to go locations.”

Earlier this year, the retailer announced a £340m investment in its food supply chain, the largest in its history.

The multi-year investment will fund the development of an automated National Distribution Centre (NDC) in Northamptonshire as the group looks to double the size of its food business. 

M&S also announced an acceleration of its store rotation and renewal programme this year, including 12 new food stores on former Homebase sites. The programme aims to create 420 bigger food stores and a more productive group of 180 full line stores, with half the estate expected to be in renewal format by 2027/28.