M&S concentrates on Paris shops

SHOPPERS hoping that Marks & Spencer will be opening up stores near them in France have had their hopes dashed as the company has no present plans to move outside the Paris area.

M&S plans three new stores in the next 12 months to join the two already in Paris; on the Champs-Elysées and the So-Ouest shopping centre. These new stores will be similar to the So-Ouest shop.

One will be next to the Eiffel Tower at the new Beaugrenelle shopping mall, with a 4,500sq.m store opening this coming autumn; a 4,700sq.m store will also open in autumn at the new Aeroville shopping mall beside Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport, and a 3,500sq.m store will open in early 2014 at the new retail development at Villeneuve La Garenne, 4km north of Paris.

Plans for another store at the Carrousel, near the Louvre, have not yet been confirmed.

Marks & Spencer say that men’s formalwear has been a big hit with customers at So-Ouest with 2,200 suits sold in the opening months of 2013.

Food sales have also gone well with the two stores selling 170,000 sandwiches, including 22,000 BLT sandwiches; 309,000 ready meals, including 19,000 Chicken Tikka Masala, and 99,000 packets of meat, including 16,000 packs of premium sausages.