Marks and Spencer (M&S) has announced it will open three new food stores in the next fortnight as part of its plans to double the size of its food business.

The retailer said the three openings have created more than 200 new jobs combined and build on the over 20 new and renewed stores that M&S has opened so far this financial year.

The openings include a new 15,000 sq ft fresh market‑style food store at Hatfield Oldings Corner, as well as a 16,000 sq ft location in Luton Bramingham. An 18,600 sq ft store will open in Farnham this week.

Each of the new stores will stock either all or the overwhelming majority of the full M&S Food catalogue, including its Remarksable Value range of everyday essentials, which are price‑benchmarked against key competitors.

With the larger format foodhalls, M&S said customers can access services such as a hot chicken counter, in‑store bakery and coffee counter, and M&S’ cheese barge.

Both Luton and Farnham are two of the former twelve Homebase sites which M&S is developing across the UK. The first of these, in Cannock, opened last December.

Since the launch of the Cannock store, which is three times the size of the former site, M&S said food sales have more than doubled.

Elsewhere, M&S said it will reopen its store in Chelmsford following an eight‑week transformation to offer more products and improve the customer experience.

M&S said it is working to double the size of its food business by growing its store footprint and expanding existing locations to offer a wider range of products in order to appeal to those customers doing their weekly shop.

The retailer added that it is looking for new, large sites across 500 locations in the UK that could stock the full range of M&S Food.

“We’re transforming M&S Food and we want every store we have to offer the very best of the food range to our customers – from trusted value to exceptional quality and innovation,” said Alex Freudmann, managing director at M&S Food. “To do that, we are finding the right store locations with the right space across the UK that can allow us to offer the widest possible product range for customers and families.

“This month, we’re bringing M&S Food to three new towns, and we have a strong pipeline of new openings planned for the year ahead.”

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