Marks & Spencer To Shut 60 Stores After Half-Year Profit Plunge Warning

Marks & Spencer is to close 60 clothing and home stores as it posts an 18.6% plunge in half-year profits.

In a radical shake-up of its business model to cut costs as part of a revival plan, will close about 30 full line UK stores and change around 45 stores to only sell food. Other UK stores would be re-located.

The full list of closures has not yet been revealed but M&S plans to shut 53 stores across 10 international markets - including 10 in China and seven in France, while pulling out of Belgium, Estonia, Hungary and Lithuania - putting around 2,100 jobs at risk.

New chief executive Steve Rowe remains tight-lipped on the number of UK staff impacted by the plans, but said that, where possible, it would keep "job continuity" for affected employees.

An M&S spokesman told Mirror this morning: 'We’re not talking (UK) locations today.'

M&S insists it will have more stores overall after the revamp, having already announced more than 200 Simply Food outlets will open by the end of the 2018/19 financial year.