Marks and Spencer has announced they will invest £30 million in its London stores, which is estimated to create 100 new jobs.
The retail giant will use the investment to open two new food halls, one in Sidcup which will open on June 19 and another in Friern Barnet, which is expected to open in August.
It will also renovate 12 Marks and Spencer stores in London to help modernise them, and some stores that will be updated include those in Blackheath, Chancery Lane, Teddington and Islington.
The stores being renovated will see changes made to their bakeries, Flower and Wine shops as well as an increase in Click and Collect facilities as 63 percent of customers at Marks and Spencer collect their online orders in-store.
Sacha Berendji, operations director at M&S, said: “We cannot wait to bring the magic of M&S to even more customers across the capital.
“Expanding our presence in London is a key part of our growth strategy – our market share in food is higher here than any region in England and there is plenty of untapped potential.”
This new investment comes after Marks and Spencer announced their best financial results in almost three decades last week, as profits for the year to March have risen 58 percent to £716 million.
Stuart Machin, the chief executive of M&S, has said the company’s financial health is “the best it has been in decades”.
Along with the £30 million investment, Marks and Spencer is also expanding its convenience stores as a new store has now opened in Queensway while another will open in Shaftesbury Avenue later this summer.
Over 15 convenience stores will be also renewed in London, including the ones at the Marylebone and Paddington stations as well as the Surbiton store.
These openings were part of Marks and Spencer’s recent announcement in which they stated they would renew 25 stores across the UK as well as open nine new food halls and four new full-line stores.
The latest Marks and Spencer store to open is Galleries, a shopping centre in Washington near Sunderland where customers will be able to shop at the “bigger, better, fresher” store on May 30.
