Marks & Spencer is shutting several cafes as part of attempts to create space for more popular products, but the supermarket chain said no jobs will be cut as a result
Marks & Spencer is closing 11 cafes in its smaller food shops as part of a continued shake-up of its store estate.
The high street giant said on Monday that shutting the cafes is part of efforts to create space for more popular products. It stressed that no jobs will be cut as a result, with impacted staff maintaining roles in the stores. The closures will affect fewer than 4% of the group’s 316 food shops.
An M&S spokesman said: “As we look to modernise our food business and offer the best of M&S Food to more people, more often, we’re investing in our store estate to give our customers the widest possible product range.
“This includes opening brand-new coffee shops offering delicious food and barista-made fairtrade coffee, including at our brand-new Bristol Cabot Circus store.
“In some of our small Food stores, where customers want a greater range of M&S Food, our transformation also involves repurposing cafe space across 11 small food stores, out of over 300 M&S cafes, coffee shop and coffee to go locations.”
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The shake-up is part of a wider £300 million investment and store rotation programme, which will significantly increase the number of M&S food halls.
It has seen the business convert a number of full-line stores into food stores, with other food-only stores receiving investment to modernise their operations and help serve more customers.
M&S has said it plans to grow to around 420 food stores by the end of 2028. It comes as the retailer continues to recover financially after it was hit by a major cyberattack in April which forced the firm to stop online orders for six weeks. It told investors that the hack, first confirmed on Easter Sunday, would cost M&S around £300 million.
Marks & Spencer was plunged into crisis earlier this year, after hackers managed to steal personal details of potentially millions of its shoppers – and hold the high street giant to ransom. Co-op was also struck, with the convenience chain “pulling the plug” on IT systems which saved it from the same fate as M&S, but still led to widespread gaps on shelves. Bosses say they hope to have resolved supply issues by this weekend. Upmarket department store Harrods also fell prey to an attack.
Earlier this year, Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at security company Check Point, said attempted ‘ransomware’ attacks on UK retailers had surged in the past two months, with the sector going from the twelfth most targeted to fifth. The top four, ominously, are all in the public sector, typically higher education, the NHS, local government and the Ministry of Defence.