M&S takes Simply Food on the road
Compass franchise to add six roadside stores
Marks & Spencer is to open six more Simply Food stores at motorway service areas over the next 18 months under its franchise partnership with Compass Group.
The deal with Moto, the service starton arm of Compass Group, will bring the number of Simply Food motorway stores to nine. The Compass deal also includes Simply Food stores in prime railway station locations.
The announcement comes a day after M&S strongly denied a weekend newspaper report that it plans to sell a substantial number of the 119 food only stores. The comoany stressed the new Moto stores are in addition to 500,000 sq ft of additional Simply Food and food-only space that is being rolled out by 2005/06.
The first Simply Food Moto store opened at Toddington last year, followed by Cherwell Valley and Reading this year. A store opens at Knutsford next week and other suitable sites are currently being identified.
Stuart Rose, Marks & Spencer chief executive, said: “As part of our Simply Food rollout, we are delighted to be extending our contract with Moto so we can give our customers more choice in more locations.”
