M&S to invest additional £12.5m in London store estate

M&S is investing £12.5m into developing its London store portfolio this year, with a pipeline of new stores set to create 200 new roles for Londoners.

It follows a £10.3m investment in the heritage retailer’s store estate in London last year, which also created 200 jobs, totalling £23m and 400 jobs over a two-year period.

The majority of stores will be food led with openings of food halls in Earslfield, a food hall in Liverpool Street Station and a redesigned M&S food hall in Waterloo Station

This week the retailer is opening a new 38,000 sq ft store in Croydon’s Purley Way, which is a “full-line” store selling clothing and home products, as well as food and will feature an M&S Café.

Chief executive, Stuart Machin, said: “M&S has been innovating in London for over a hundred years. We’re proud that many of our high street ‘firsts’ were born in the capital – from operating a chain of penny bazaars across London in the early 20th century, to opening our first ever Simply Food here in 2001, and trialing our first new-look Foodhall design in Clapham in 2019.”

“Today, a third of all M&S stores are located in London – whether in train stations, shopping centres, or high streets – and today’s investment shows that we are committed to offering shoppers in our great capital city the best of M&S for the next 100 years and beyond.”