Marks and Spencer in huge hiring drive for new Croydon store

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

Marks and Spencer has revealed plans to hire more than 130 staff at a huge new Croydon store.

The supermarket will be hiring staff ahead of the new shop’s grand opening in Purley Way.

The supermarket chain is set to move into the new store in the spring or summer of 2023 after calling the Whitgift Centre home for 50 years.

An M&S spokeswoman said the supermarket chain was “really excited to be opening a new M&S store in Purley Way which will offer local customers a range of M&S products across our food, clothing [and] home departments”.

The supermarket’s confirmation that it will remain in the heart of Croydon follows the company’s announcement earlier this year that it was relocating many stores away from town centres.

M&S said it was making the changes due to the shift to online shopping over the pandemic which has “increased the imperative” to cut store space.

The move will eventually see 110 stores shut down, with 68 full-line stores already closed and another 32 to go in the next three years.

In a statement in May, M&S said: “The step change in online participation and further shift of trade away from high street and city centre stores during the pandemic has increased the imperative to reduce Clothing & Home trading space.

“Last year we set out the objective of the M&S store rotation programme to create a modernised estate of c.180 full-line stores and a growing programme of larger, more inspirational Food stores.

“We aim to fund the exit costs of the legacy estate through an increasingly active asset management and freehold disposal programme, which we expect to release at least £200m of cash proceeds.”

M&S was key to Westfield’s original £1.4 billion plans for Croydon. The original planning application has expired and there has been no update so far on the future of the scheme from the Croydon Partnership, the joint venture of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Hammerson who are in charge of the plans.

Pictured top: M&S flagship store in Oxford Street (Picture: Google Street View)