The Neath store will join the branch at Broadway Hallings in Bradford in closing as M&S plan a restructure of the location of its stores.
It comes after M&S, which runs 405 stores across the country, closed a string of branches across the country in a blow for shoppers.
In 2022, the retailer announced plans to shut 67 “lower productivity” stores.
Some have already closed their doors for good between August and November last year, including in Manchester, Swindon and Birmingham.
In addition to this, 40 M&S clothing stores closed between November 2016 and July 2023.
M&S Regional Manager Allison Jenkins said in a statement today:
“We are committed to Wales and in the past three years we have invested £18m in updating our Welsh stores and we’re also growing the number of Welsh suppliers we’re working with.
“Shopping habits are changing, and this means we need to focus our investment on the right stores in the right places so we can provide the very best shopping experience for our customers.
“As part of this transformation, we have today announced to colleagues our proposals to close our Neath store in May 2024.
“This has been a tough decision but means we can invest in many of our twenty-two other stores in Wales, so we keep pace with the demands of our customers today and in the future.
“Our priority now is to talk to our colleagues about what this announcement means for them and to support them through these changes.”
A spokesperson for M&S confirmed the two closures, adding:
“We have announced that we are investing £480million in bigger, better stores across the UK.
“Our store rotation and investment programme is about making sure we have the right stores, in the right place, with the right space.
“Whilst our store rotation programme involves closing some stores, it also means relocating and opening new stores in locations across the country.”
Welsh Assembly leadership candidate Jeremy Miles MS commenting on the decision said:
“I have received a letter from Marks and Spencer this afternoon, informing me they propose to close their Neath store, and they have informed store staff of this today.
“The closure of this store would be a devastating blow to Neath town centre, and I will be writing to Marks and Spencer urging them to reconsider their position, and to seek more information. My thoughts are with the store staff at this time during this period of uncertainty.”
Marks and Spencer have stores across Swansea Bay, including Swansea City Centre, Llanelli’s Parc Trostre, Neath and Carmarthen town centres, Withybush Retail Park in Haverfordwest and MacArthur Glen Outlet in Bridgend. It also has a number of stand-alone Simply Food stores including Fforestfach and Mumbles in Swansea.
(Lead image: Elliott Brown / Creative Commons 2.0)
Maybe M&S could still have a presence in Neath by moving it’s Foodhall into one of the new retail units alongside the new Leisure Centre development. Just a thought.
The vast majority of comments say that we would like to have a bigger and better foodstore in Neath. The current one is too small, too busy (ironically), the aisles are too small and the products are too close together on the shelves. The clothes store is too big.