Marks and Spencer recently announced the closure of 11 of its cafes as part of a store restructure. The retailer has more than 300 food shops across the country, and many have cafes in them. However, the closures will only affect less than 4% of the supermarket’s stores. Some of the affected locations include Anlaby, in Hull, and Martlesham Heath, in Ipswich.
A spokesperson said: “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. In some of our small Food stores, where customers want a greater range of M&S Food, our transformation also involves repurposing cafe space across 11 small food stores, out of over 300 M&S cafes, coffee shops and coffee-to-go locations.”
This comes as M&S recently closed its Wolverhampton city centre store on Dudley Street. The iconic store, which opened in 1929, permanently closed down on September 27.
However, as part of the new transformation plan, Marks and Spencer will open more food halls, including six new food stores before Christmas, which will create 200 jobs.
The retailer opened a brand new market-style Foodhall on Southampton Street, in Covent Garden, on October 15, and re-opened two Foodhalls in Temple Fortune and Wimbledon after major transformations. November will see two more new Foodhalls open at Clapham Common and Fulham Broadway, in South London.
