Marks & Spencer is going to start closing down to focus on food

Marks & Spencer has announced that it is going to start closing some shops after a huge drop in profits.

The retailer said that around 60 clothing and home stores so that it can focus on food.

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It comes as they announce an 18.6% plunge in underlying half-year profits to £231.3 million while bottom-line profits crashed 88.4% to £25.1 million.

Chief executive Steve Rowe also outlined 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.

M&S said it will close around 30 of its 304 full-line stores – selling clothing and home as well as food – and downsize or replace around 45 shops to Simply Food outlets.

An employee restocks the shelves in a 'Simply Food' branch of Marks & Spencer on January 7, 2014 in London, England. The food and clothing retailer, which has traded for 130 years, has seen a recent drop in share price as investors are predicting disappointing sales figures for the store's clothing division.  

The retailer is going to focus on its Simply Food branches 

It will also relocate some other outlets, while opening other stores in so-called under-served areas.

The group remained 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.

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The group insisted it would have more stores overall after the revamp, with already-announced aims to open more than 200 Simply Food outlets by the end of the 2018/19 financial year.

Mr Rowe, who took over from Dutchman Marc Bolland in April, said: ‘Over the next five years we will transform our UK estate with around 60 fewer clothing and home stores, whilst continuing to increase the number of our Simply Food stores.
‘In the future, we will have more inspiring stores in places where customers want to shop.’