Marks & Spencer to invest 90 million pounds in London store estate

British department store Marks & Spencer has said it is preparing to invest 90 million pounds into its London retail network in what would be the second round of funding the company has injected into the region.

Among the plans, the retailer revealed it is set to open 17 “new and improved stores” across this year and the next, all pending planning permission.

Much of this will centre around the implementation of new Foodhalls across six of locations, as already seen at its Clapham South store, where a wider selection of products and an upgrade to the layout has already been applied.

This is in addition to seven existing Foodhalls which reopened last week and are set to be renewed, while three train station stores have also undergone refurbishment and reopened.

A wider overhaul is set to take place at Marks & Spencer’s full line Pantheon store on Oxford Street. The renewal will be phased, starting with the Foodhall in the basement on April 22, which is expected to finish in late summer before work starts on the Clothing and Home divisions.

These plans are associated with the company’s ongoing store rotation programme, which is said to be “picking up pace as new and renewed stores are trading well”. As part of this strategy, Marks & Spencer has been funnelling investments into core business regions, including most recently a 50 million pound funding into Northwest of England.