Marks & Spencer to close another eight stores; 468 jobs affected

The stores set for closure are Andover, Basildon, Bridlington, Denton, Falmouth, Fareham, Keighley and Stockport. Staff will now enter a period of consultation and M&S said that all colleagues affected would be redeployed or offered redeployment at other stores before redundancy is considered.

The retailer also confirmed the closure of stores in Birkenhead, Bournemouth, Durham, Fforestfach, Putney and Redditch by the end of April, with all staff there moving to nearby stores.

M&S said it has reassessed and reduced its Simply Food opening programme and now only plans to open a total of 36 owned and franchise stores over the next six months, creating 1,200 management and customer assistant roles.

Sacha Berendji, director of retail at Marks & Spencer, said: “We’re committed to transforming M&S for our customers, colleagues and shareholders. Stores will always be an integral part of our customer experience, alongside M&S.com, but we have to ensure we have the right offer in the right locations.

“We don’t want any colleagues to leave M&S and we will work with each colleague individually on what is best for them as we endeavour to give everyone a role. However, we accept in some cases we may have to consider redundancy.

“We believe these changes are vital for the future of M&S and we will continue to accelerate the programme, taking tough but necessary decisions, as we focus on making M&S special.”

Back in November last year, the company had said it was accelerating its UK store estate plan after the better than expected levels of sales transfer from closures and plans to grow online sales.

At 0940 GMT, the shares were down 0.8% to 302.68p.