By Sacha Berendji, Operations Director, M&S

M&S’s roots are firmly planted in the North of England and this week we have set out a £48.5m investment in our future there – with a plan that delivers bigger, better stores for our customers.

Whilst other retailers are going online or sadly disappearing from our towns, we are committed to having great shops for our customers across the UK. Our store rotation strategy puts that ambition into action, so that we can build a store estate fit for the future – with the right stores, in the right place, with the right space to serve our customers the way they want to shop today.

We are in the midst of the busiest ever week in our store rotation programme and the North of England is at the epicentre of the activity. Today, we have opened the doors on a new major store at Chesterfield’s Ravenside Retail Park, a new Food Hall in Macclesfield and just yesterday we unveiled a 6500sqft extension at our Harrogate Oatlands store.

Since the start of the year, we have invested £20million in new openings and the renewal of existing Food halls including stores in Sheffield, Newcastle and Manchester. In the process we have created over 200 new jobs in local towns and cities across the North. And there is more to come – as we have a £28.5m investment planned for two major new openings at Liverpool ONE and Leeds White Rose in 2023.

In these stores – we can bring together the best of physical and digital retail – to make shopping more convenient and more enjoyable for customers. Whether that’s speedy digital click & collect services, our latest format cafés or having easy and accessible parking – these stores are set up for a family customer today – and tomorrow.

We know our stores play a role in anchoring communities; on the opening of our new Chesterfield store at a former Debenhams site - Councillor Tricia Gilby, Leader of Chesterfield Borough Council called out how our commitment and confidence in the town’s future – complements its wider regeneration plans, which are supported by the Government’s levelling up fund.

At a national level – our store rotation programme targets a move to 180 high quality larger stores that sell our full Clothing, Home & Food offer – such as the one Chesterfield, whilst at the same time opening over 100 new bigger, better food sites to create a network of 450 owned food stores. The strong performance we’ve seen at our recently relocated stores has given us confidence that we can go faster with our plans – and we’re aiming to deliver the programme in just three years, instead of the original 2028 target.

We’re seeing a quick payback rate on our investment – with recent stores delivering a two-year return on net capital. However, investment in our store estate will require us to unlock development value that exists in some of our older sites across the UK, such as its Marble Arch site.

I’ve been lucky enough to have spent my near 30-year retail career working in and around stores and I really believe in the power of shops. We want our customers in the North of England to get the best of M&S and through this investment in new and upgraded stores we will deliver just that.