Marks and Spencer plans closure of Sunderland city centre store

Sunderland city centre has been dealt a bitter blow after Marks and Spencer announced plans to to close its branch in High Street West.

The retail giant has been pulling out of town and city centres in recent years, and has now confirmed it is proposing to close its branch in Sunderland city centre.

It comes as the firm works to open a new 47,000 sq ft store next to the Galleries Retail Park in Washington, as revealed by the Echo.

Bosses at M&S said the city centre store would remain trading until the new store was ready to open.

In a previous announcement, the company said it was expecting to open the new Washington store in spring 2024.

Staff now face an anxious wait over the news and while the firm has said it will redeploy workers 'where possible', their jobs look likely to move at least several miles away.

Today, Philip Barker-Thomson, M&S regional manager, said: “Shopping habits are changing, so we’re rotating our store estate to make sure we have the right stores to offer customers a brilliant shopping experience.

"As part of these changes, we have today announced to colleagues our proposal to close our M&S Sunderland store at 77 High Street West.

"We appreciate that this will be disappointing news for some.

“Rotating our store estate involves closing some stores, but it also means investing in opening new stores, including our upcoming new, bigger M&S store nearby in the Galleries Retail Park in Washington.

"The new 47,000 sqft store is part of a £13million investment by M&S in our stores in the North East and will offer local customers a wider range of M&S products than ever before across a new Clothing & Home department and a bigger Foodhall.

“Our priority now is to talk to our colleagues about what this announcement means for them.

"Should the proposals go ahead, we will offer them alternative roles with M&S wherever possible and there will be lots of roles available for colleagues in our new M&S Washington Galleries store.

"Under these proposals, the Sunderland store will also continue trading until the new Washington Galleries store is ready to open.”

The news comes as town and city centre shopping areas across the country face difficult times.

Cllr Paul Edgeworth, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat group on Sunderland City Council, said: “It is difficult to overstate what an absolutely devastating blow this is for Sunderland.

"M&S is one of the only big-name anchor shops left in the town and its departure will mean it is even harder to attract people to come and shop in Sunderland city centre.

 “Given the importance of M&S to bringing people into the town and the amount of buildings that the council now owns on this street, I am calling on Sunderland City Council to do everything it can to offer incentives for Marks and Spencers to change its decision and stay in the city centre.

 “Seeing as the council are subsidising other leisure facilities and hospitality venues in the city centre then they really need to be exploring every single option available to make it worth M&S’s while staying in Sunderland city centre.

"Otherwise this could be one of the final nails in the coffin for our retail offer – especially at a time when Free After Three parking has been axed, incentivising people to choose places like The Galleries and Dalton Park over Sunderland.”