M&S thinks out of town in light of £965m pre tax profit

M&S today announced its results for the year to 31st March revealing pre tax profit of £965m.

It plans to open larger out of town stores, stepping up its pipeline, and it has appointed a senior retail executive to manage its retail park stores.

In a statement it said: ‘Some of our best stores are large out of town stores, but our presence is limited and many of them are too small. Average space in our large out of town stores will be around 100,000 sq ft. We are expanding space in our existing stores in London Colney, Braehead, Cheshunt and Lisburn.’

M&S outlined its property strategy last November revealing it would add 15-20% new space over the next five years.

The company plans to open flagship out of town stores in Glasgow Pollok and a 105,000 sq ft store in Colliers Wood that will open next year.

As well as out of town stores it is also stepping up its city centre presence and re-developments of existing stores include the London Pantheon store, Edinburgh and Belfast. In Derby it is relocating to a larger store while it will open new stores in White City and Portsmouth.

It is continuing on its £1bn store refurbishment programme and has refurbsihed 40% of its portfolio.

M&S also announced the appointment of Martha Lane Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com, as non executive director.