The return of a full Marks & Spencer store to Hull has moved a step closer after planning permission was granted for one part of the major retailer’s plans.
M&S is vying to launch a large store packed with its complete offering of food, fashions, homeware and beauty – the first time Hull shoppers will have ‘high street’ access to the retailer’s goods in more than six years.
Shoppers were left devastated when the city’s Whitefriargate shop closed in 2019 after almost 80 years of trading, with 93 employees affected, as part of the firm’s UK-wide programme to “reshape” its store estate”.
That has meant the nearest full M&S store is in Scunthorpe, aside from its food hall in Kingswood Retail Park. Now, however, the retailer has reached a significant milestone in plans to create a new, larger store at Kingswood which will be a whopping six times bigger than its current Food Hall.
The company is set to expand into part of the unit currently occupied by Matalan, relocating its Food Hall from Unit 9B into the new base while also bringing in its home goods, clothing and the rest of its comprehensive range – also more than doubling its workforce from 43 to 89.
Planning documents submitted to the council outlined how Matalan’s existing unit is too big for its requirements, while the M&S food store is too small.
(Image: Tangerine Photography for M&S)
Units 1 to 3 are poised to be split to house both stores, and planners have now rubber stamped the creation of mezzanine levels which M&S will need to house its various departments. Meanwhile, the existing Matalan store employs 47 people in full time and part-time roles and the company intends to maintain the same job numbers in the right-sized store.
Alterations to the car park are also set to be made, together with the installation of new electric vehicle chargers and trolley bays.
The new M&S store will be more than six times the size of its current store at more than 60,000 sq ft spread over two floors – an area which includes a proposed extension – with clothing, home and food all on the ground floor and a further sales area on the first floor.
M&S has said it now it is awaiting planning consent for internal and external building alterations which will allow it to trade from the site, but a start date for work has yet to be announced.
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