Find out one of the biggest shop closing shops,putting hundreds of jobs a stake.

Mark & Spencer closing some shops

MARKS and Spencer has announced the closure of up to 14 stores across the country putting almost 500 jobs at risk as the struggling retailer unveils a major overhaul impacting its clothing and home outlets

The department store said the staff, which could be as many as 468, will be offered redeployment at other stores before redundancy is considered.

Six stores will close in April: Birkenhead, Bournemouth, Durham, Fforestfach in Wales, Putney and Redditch will close this year, M&S announced today.

While eight other stores have been earmarked for closure and will undergo consultation before being shut. They are: Andover, Basildon, Bridlington, Denton, Falmouth, Fareham, Keighley and Stockport.

The M&S closures comes as part of a major overhaul announced in November 2016, when the group unveiled plans impacting on a quarter of its clothing and home outlets.

Marks & Spencer is currently at the consultation stage regarding the future of the eight shops and the department store has yet to say when the final announcement will be made.

It is part of the retailer's plans to focus on food rather than clothing and home ranges.

A spokesman for Marks and Spencer told Express.co.uk: "They are currently proposals and will go to consultation. We are not putting any date on it as it takes as long as it needs to."

The department store suffered from a disappointing Christmas period when sales of clothing and food fell.

Total third-quarter sales in the UK dropped by 1.4 per cent to £2.9bn. Shares fell almost three percent in morning trades today.

At the beginning of January it was revealed that the retailer was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, sliding by seven per cent following a Christmas setback.

M&S blamed unseasonal autumn weather as clothing and homeware sales dropped by 2.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to 30 December while food slid by 0.4per cent.

Market analyst Neil Wilson said after Christmas: “As expected Marks and Spencer suffered a bad fall in sales over the Christmas quarter - badly lagging competitors on all fronts.”

Sacha Berendji, director of retail at Marks & Spencer said, “We’re committed to transforming M&S for our customers, colleagues and shareholders. Stores will always be an integral part of our customer experience, alongside M&S.com, but we have to ensure we have the right offer in the right locations.

“We don’t want any colleagues to leave M&S and we will work with each colleague individually on what is best for them as we endeavour to give everyone a role. However, we accept in some cases we may have to consider redundancy.

“We believe these changes are vital for the future of M&S and we will continue to accelerate the programme, taking tough but necessary decisions, as we focus on making M&S special.”

Last year, M&S curbed its Simply Food expansion plan, announcing that only 36 stores will open over the next six months.

The retail expert Jonathan De Mello described the closures as a “necessary move” for the company and “more closures need to happen for M & S to optimise its estate”.

Marks and Spencer currently has 1,025 stores in the UK: 302 Clothing, Home and Food, 684 Food-only and 39 outlets.

Martin Lane, Managing Editor of money.co.uk said: “Sadly I suspect this is just the beginning of redundancies in the high street retail industry we’ll witness this year.

"Shoppers habits are changing, purse strings are tightening and our reluctance to pay full price becomes more problematic for high street stores.”

Birkenhead

Bournemouth

Durham

Fforestfach in Wales

Putney

Redditch

M&S stores proposed for closure are:

Andover

Basildon

Bridlington

Denton

Falmouth

Fareham

Keighley

Stockport

Source: Express.co.uk