Two weeks ago the retailer announced it will close 27 of its stores, mainly from the Simply Food portfolio, following a period of tough trading. A wide variety of retailers has expressed an interest in the stores.
Ciaran Bird, executive director of CBRE, which has been appointed to oversee the disposals, said that no offers have been accepted to date. “M&S still needs to confirm which of the proposed disposals will cease trading. However, we have received a tremendous amount of interest from a variety of retailers including food, fashion and discount operators,” he said.
Supermarket groups Waitrose and Tesco are expected to acquire some of the M&S stores, after announcements this week that both are taking over a number of the sites released by Co-operative Group as part of its Somerfield acquisition.
Waitrose is taking over 13 Somerfield shops, while Tesco has bought seven. In December it emerged Morrisons would buy 34 of the sites released as a result of the deal.
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