M&S Aims To Open 150 New Stores Overseas

The Guardian:

Marks & Spencer is understood to be planning an ambitious international expansion programme that will see it opening an overseas store every week for the next three years.

The scale of the expansion scheme - some 150 new outlets - is substantially greater that the group had so far indicated. At the time of the store chain’s recent annual profits announcement chief executive Stuart Rose said he had plans for 25 to 30 new overseas stores.The programme will take the total number of M&S international outlets to more than 350.

The vast majority of the new stores will be franchised operations, where M&S sets out how the stores should look and sells its branded goods, but accepts no responsibility for the running of each store.

However, some of the new outlets are likely to be directly owned by M&S, marking a new strategy for Mr Rose, who is less than halfway through a £570m plan to refurbish M&S’s UK outlets.

M&S operates in 29 countries and Hong Kong. It has 198 franchised outlets together with 19 directly owned stores in Hong Kong, Gibraltar and Ireland.

UK retailers have a chequered history in their attempts to export UK high street brands abroad. Among those to have tried to expand overseas and failed are Next, Dixons, J Sainsbury and Boots.

But in recent years an increasing number of retailers have turned to franchises to extend their brand without risking shareholders’ cash. Among those using franchises are Debenhams and Mothercare, which have both opened stores in India with local partners.