Marks and Spencer to close cafes in major £300m shake-up

The retail giant says no jobs to be lost as staff will be redeployed to other roles

Marks & Spencer is set to close 11 cafes across its smaller food shops as part of an ongoing shake-up of its retail estate.

The high street giant confirmed on Monday that the move aims to create space for more popular products.

M&S stressed that no jobs will be lost, with all affected staff redeployed to other roles within their stores.

The closures will impact fewer than 4 per cent of the group’s 316 food shops.

Confirming the closures, a spokesperson for M&S 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 shops and coffee-to-go locations.”

M&S has plans to open more than 100 food stores by the end of 2028 (PA)

The shake-up is part of a wider £300m investment and store rotation programme, which will significantly increase the number of M&S food halls.

It has seen the business convert several 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 company to stop online orders for six weeks.

It told investors that the hack, first confirmed on Easter Sunday, would cost M&S around £300m.