M&S to ‘continue trading’ in Rochdale

Marks and Spencer

Marks and Spencer is to continue trading in Rochdale, despite yet another branch closure.

Place North West announced that the Stockport store will the latest M&S branch to close on Wednesday (28 February), despite the council’s best efforts. This follows the regional closure of stores in Birkenhead, Bournemouth, Durham, Fforestfach, Putney, and Redditch by April.

A number have stores have also been considered for closure, including Denton, Andover, Basildon, Bridlington, Falmouth, Fareham and Keighley.

Rochdale is not believed to be one of them, despite the retailer controversially pulling out of the new Riverside development.

A spokesperson for Marks & Spencer said: “We are adapting to changing customer habits and this means taking some tough decisions – we are investing in new stores, relocating stores and, in some cases, closing stores. In this case, we do not believe relocating the store is the right move and have therefore informed the council that we no longer intend to proceed. Instead our intention is to continue to serve customers in Rochdale from our Yorkshire Street store and from M&S.com.”

In 2015, M&S was announced alongside Next as the first retailers committed to opening in the proposed development. 

Rochdale Online revealed in October that the Council had purchased the current M&S premises on Yorkshire Street at a cost of £4.5 million - intended to facilitate the M&S relocation to Riverside.

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/113119/council-spends-%C2%A381-million-on-marks-and-spencer-and-mecca-bingo-premises