Marks & Spencer has said it will accelerate its plan to close older and underperforming stores.
Chief executive Stuart Machin said the retailer had been “constrained by its historic failure to modernise a legacy store base”.
He added: “Even today, we depend on ageing stores that are costly to operate and maintain and, in some cases, no longer on pitch.”
M&S has said its objective is to accelerate store rotation to create a productive estate of around 180 full-line stores and around 400 M&S-operated Food stores in growth locations by FY28.
Machin added: “Meeting these challenging targets will mean accelerating the pipeline of new development.”
During the second half, a further six renewals are planned. Alongside new stores, this will bring the total number of stores in the new format to 108.
M&S declared half-year profit before tax of £325.6m, up 56% on the previous year’s £208.5m, on revenue of £6.13bn, up 10.8%.
Machin said: “In summary, we’re only just beginning. Lots done, lots to do, lots of opportunity.”
To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews
