M&S is opening three brand-new food stores this week and next, as it seeks to double the size of its Food business and attract more family shoppers.
A new 15,000sq ft fresh market-style food store opened this week at Hatfield Oldings Corner, as well as a 16,000 sq ft Luton Bramingham location, set to be followed by a 18,600sq ft store in Farnham next Wednesday.
The three openings have created over 200 new jobs combined and build on the more than 20 new and renewed stores that M&S has opened so far, this financial year.
M&S is working to double the size of its food business by growing its store footprint and expanding existing locations to offer a wider range of products, appealing to those customers doing their weekly shop.
Each of the new stores will stock either all or the overwhelming majority of the full M&S Food catalogue including its Remarksable Value range of everyday essentials – price benchmarked against key competitors but with M&S quality point of difference – and the family-friendly Bigger Pack Better Value range, so customers can tick off everything on their shopping list including delicious food and home essentials like toilet tissue, washing up liquid, and dishwasher tablets. The Bigger Pack Better Value range was expanded by a third last year to total over 100 products.
With the larger format Foodhalls customers can now shop with some of the latest innovations in M&S, such as a hot chicken counter, in-store bakery & coffee counter serving barista-made drinks and M&S’ popular cheese barge.
Both Luton and Farnham are two of the former twelve Homebase sites which M&S is developing across the UK. The first of these, in Cannock, opened last December and since launch is triple the size of the former store: Food sales have more than doubled in the new store.
Alex Freudmann, managing director at M&S Food, said: “We’re transforming M&S Food and we want every store we have to offer the very best of the food range to our customers – from trusted value to exceptional quality and innovation. To do that, we are finding the right store locations with the right space across the UK that can allow us to offer the widest possible product range for customers and families. This month, we’re bringing M&S Food to three new towns, and we have a strong pipeline of new openings planned for the year ahead.”
Elsewhere, M&S’ latest renewal is set to launch this Thursday at Westway Chelmsford, following an eight-week transformation to offer more products and an improved shopping experience.
M&S is looking for new, large sites across 500 locations in the UK that could stock the full range of M&S Food, growing the target size of its Food stores to an average of 18,000sqft.
