{"id":277544,"date":"2025-11-22T16:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T16:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/277544\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T16:55:10","slug":"marks-spencer-in-major-500-new-food-stores-plan-after-devastating-324m-attack-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/277544\/","title":{"rendered":"Marks & Spencer in major 500 new food stores plan after devastating \u00a3324m attack | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marks & Spencer is considering a major expansion to its food store portfolio, just months after it was targeted by a cyber attack. The classic British retailer<\/a> has already begun scouting around 500 sites around the UK, as it looks at a vast expansion of its food side of the business.<\/p>\n

M&S already has more than 300 shops around the UK<\/a>, with the majority of locations coming in the form of M&S Food sites in retail parks around the nation. The business suffered a tough start to the year, losing \u00a3324 million from a cyber attack that impacted their services for around four months but are looking to bounce back with plans to double their brick-and-mortar locations in the next few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The business has drafted plans to increase its offerings to 180 mixed stores (department stores with a food section) and 420 dedicated M&S Food <\/a>\u00a0shops.<\/p>\n

Much of this expansion is focused on the capital, with 200 potential sites being eyed up in areas around London.<\/p>\n

According to The Times<\/a>, M&S is focusing much of its search in Zones 2 and 3, with desired locations being around 10,000 to 18,000 sq ft and in prominent areas.<\/p>\n

But the much-loved retailer has already begun expanding ahead of a busy festive period<\/a>. More than a hundred people queued up outside for the launch<\/a> of their new 7,200 sq ft Clapham location in South West London earlier this week with a new store in Bristol also opening in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

On the new locations, Alex Freudmann, managing director of M&S Food, told the news outlet: \u201cThe strong performance of our new M&S Food stores gives us the confidence to explore even more locations across the UK, from Elgin [in Scotland] to Exmouth [in Devon].<\/p>\n

\u201cWith more than 20 stores opening or modernised before the end of the financial year, we are moving faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite the optimism, there is no doubt that this year has been one to forget for the retailer. Only weeks ago, it announced its pre-tax profits fell by 99% from March until September, down to \u00a33.4m from \u00a3391.9m compared to the year before.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Stuart Machin added: \u201cWe are regaining momentum. In food we continue to outperform the market, with three years of consecutive monthly volume growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food is something that will become core to the M&S business<\/a>. Currently, the retailer holds just four per cent of the grocery market, but with more than 50 stores already on their way, and a sweeping refurb across half of their shops, this is something they hope to change.<\/p>\n

Its nationwide scouting mission and promise of a \u201cfinder’s fee\u201d for agents has led to locations around the UK being eyed up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marks & Spencer is considering a major expansion to its food store portfolio, just months after it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,113592,113593,113594,722,719,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-277544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-ms-cyber-attack","11":"tag-ms-new-stores","12":"tag-ms-store-opening","13":"tag-marks-and-spencer","14":"tag-supermarkets","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}