Marks And Spencer Uk to Close 14 Cafés as Foodhall Reconfiguration Expands Across Britain

Marks and Spencer Uk is withdrawing café services at 14 locations across the country as it reconfigures store layouts to increase foodhall space. The shift, which the company says responds to customer demand for a wider range of M&S Food, has immediate implications for staff deployment, store formats and local shoppers.

Congleton café re‑purposing and Katie Whelan statement

The latest site affected is the café at Congleton, Cheshire, which will be re‑purposed to make room for more product choice in the foodhall. M&S regional manager Katie Whelan said the decision followed a review of the Congleton store and was intended to improve the shopping experience, while acknowledging the change will be disappointing for some customers; teams will continue working in‑store to serve shoppers.

Hull Kingswood and Anlaby Retail Park closures

Hull Kingswood, at Kingswood Retail Park in the East Riding of Yorkshire, is named among the 14 cafés to close. The café at Anlaby Retail Park closed at the end of last year and the Food Hall there has been shut for more than a month for a 'refresh'; after closing on January 24 the store is expected to reopen in March, and the former café will not return.

Store changes, colleagues redeployment and customer reaction

A spokesperson confirmed that colleagues affected by café closures will be redeployed to other roles across the foodhall. That redeployment is presented as a direct effect of the decision to free café space for additional food ranges. Local customers expressed dismay: one regular at Kingswood wrote that patrons were "greatly saddened" and felt sorry for staff being moved into other roles, noting the café had been a social hub that was disabled friendly and catered for people with dietary restrictions.

Marks And Spencer Uk 500‑area plan and store‑size targets

While some cafés close, the company is simultaneously casting a wide net for new openings. In January the business produced a "potential location list" covering 500 areas across the UK. The search targets "highly visible" and "accessible" sites capable of delivering trading space of 18, 000 sqft (25, 000 sqft gross). Within the M25 the focus is on sites able to host M&S Foodhalls with trading space between 6, 000–18, 000 sqft (10, 000–25, 000 sqft gross). All new stores would adopt a format with an extended M&S Food range, wider aisles for bigger trolleys and larger car parks to appeal to family shoppers. What makes this notable is the simultaneous tightening of some local services while laying groundwork for a substantial expansion footprint.

Kingswood redevelopment, Matalan split and Hull city centre position

Plans submitted to Hull City Council envisage a larger replacement for the existing Kingswood food store, expected to open in "Autumn/Winter 2027". The new store will occupy half of a unit currently home to Matalan; the unit is to be divided so Matalan retains one side and M&S moves into the other. Planning documents state the existing premises is too large for Matalan’s business model requirements and that the current M&S food store is too small to meet M&S’s business model requirements—an explanation given for the proposed swap. Separately, there are no current business plans for Marks & Spencer to return to Hull city centre, where the retailer had been based in Whitefriargate until 2019.

Swindon article unavailable and other supermarket closures

A headline about the future of a Swindon M&S café appears in the public record, but the article content is unavailable and the detail is unclear in the provided context. The café reductions at M&S sit alongside similar moves across other supermarket groups: Morrisons last year closed a number of cafés as part of a wider restructuring that also saw market kitchens, some Morrisons Daily convenience stores, florists, meat counters, fish counters and pharmacies shut. Sainsbury's also closed a number of its in‑store cafés last year, illustrating a broader sector trend toward reallocating in‑store space.

The immediate cause—customer demand for a wider M&S Food offer—has driven the effect of converting café footprints into retail space, prompting staff redeployment and local closures while the business pursues a large, targeted expansion strategy across 500 areas and specific square‑footage targets.