The retailer is vowing to open hundreds of new stores across the UK – with wider aisles to allow bigger shopping trolleys
Marks and Spencer has revealed plans to massively expand the number of its stores in the UK. New plans have emerged that would see M&S open up new sites all across the UK.
A total of 500 locations are being looked at around Britain as it aims to secure hundreds of new sites for grocery shops and double the size of its food business.
Sites being looked at for food stores outside London include Falmouth in Cornwall, Scarborough, St Andrews and Lancaster.
All of the new shops would have wider aisles for bigger shopping trolleys. There would also be larger car parks for family shoppers, the Times reports. More than 50 per cent of M&S’ shops are expected to be refurbished by April 2028.
The news comes as the firm vows to fight back after a massive cyber-attack that lasted for weeks. It cost the firm £324 million in the first half of 2025.
The Times reports that M&S already has approximately 330 stores in Britain. Now the company wants to have 180 mixed stores and 420 food-only shops.
In London alone, 200 possible sites are being sought – with many more elsewhere. Locations would need to be big enough to stock the entire M&S Food range. Marks and Spencer say eight new shops just dedicated to food will open by the end of 2025.
“The 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],” said Alex Freudmann, managing director of M&S Food. “With more than 20 stores opening or modernised before the end of the financial year, we are moving faster.”
Chief executive Stuart Machin said the food division had “largely recovered and is showing strong sales performance” when half-year results were announced. He said: “We are regaining momentum. In food we continue to outperform the market, with three years of consecutive monthly volume growth.”
Machin wants M&S to become a “full shopping-list retailer”. This month he said M&S’s market share in grocery was 4 per cent, the Times reports. “It’s still piddly, is the term I use — it’s still small — which really just encourages us, because we’ve got more than 50 food stores in the pipeline already approved,” he said.
