M&S CEO Stuart Machin: I want to invest in a London we can be proud of

I’m a proud Londoner. It’s the city where I live, where I work, and where I most love to go walking with my dog.

London is also a special place for M&S. Our first store in the capital opened in 1913, offering customers the same high quality great value products that we’re famous for today. M&S stores have been a permanent fixture across the city’s streets ever since.

Over a third of our store estate is located throughout London, our first ever Simply Food opened here, and Clapham Junction was where we developed and launched our renewal format which we’ve been rolling out across the country since 2019.

London has always put us on a global stage. We’ve been backdrops to major events and historical moments from the Platinum Jubilee to London’s annual Pride, and we’ll be ready in two weeks’ time to do the same again when more than a quarter of a million people descend for the King’s Coronation.

But the truth is London is falling way behind other major global cities.

The economic turbulence of recent years has had a decimating impact on London’s retailers, with hundreds of empty buildings and shuttered shops. Seventeen buildings are listed for demolition across Westminster with four on Oxford Street alone. The High Street which is meant to be the jewel in London’s crown today is a national embarrassment, with a proliferation of tacky candy stores, antisocial behaviour and footfall remaining in the doldrums, 11% down on pre-pandemic levels. And the scrapping of tax-free shopping for international visitors only holds London back further. Meanwhile other cities are beginning to thrive again.

It pains me to see our great city like this. For too long now it has been on life support. As a proud Londoner I want to invest in a London we can be proud of.

So this week we are doing our bit and making a £12.5 million investment in our London shops, creating 200 jobs in the process.

This means we’ll more than double the new store square footage across London, through openings like our brand new 38,000 sq ft store in Croydon’s Purley Way, as well as extending our renewals format to more stores and customers across the capital.

We believe in the long-term future of stores, and establishing a fit for the future store estate is a key part of our strategy to protect the magic of M&S and modernise the rest.

We see stores as a huge competitive advantage in serving customers however, wherever and whenever they want.

So we’re continuing to invest in the capital’s bricks and mortar, and delivering some of our biggest innovations here as we’ve always done. We’ll ensure our stores are equipped to offer the full omnichannel experience customers demand today. Our approach is to be selective and targeted into the right sites where the economics add up, but our centuries-old commitment to London remains steadfast.

But we don’t want to stop there. Right now, we have plans for a modern, sustainable redevelopment for our Marble Arch store, which would deliver a transformative investment for the west end of Oxford Street including more than 2000 jobs.

The current store is not fit for purpose due to its confusing layout, misaligned floors, poor “backstage” area for colleagues, and crucially the amount of energy it wastes.

Instead we are aiming to establish a modern and innovative site, which will be in the top 1% of London’s most sustainable buildings, alongside significant improvements to the surrounding public areas. This will revitalise the whole area, making it better for our colleagues, customers and the community, and breathing life back into Oxford Street.

There’s no national levelling-up without a healthy, thriving capital city and Oxford Street needs this lifeline. Our plans have the support of retailers and local community groups alike, and we’ve had approval every step of the way from local authorities.

The final decision now lies with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up. For the sake of every Londoner, and the millions more watching, I hope the opportunity to restore our great city’s High Streets is not rejected.

Stuart Machin is the chief executive of Marks & Spencer