Marks & Spencer says it will introduce ‘real’ bakeries into many of its larger stores as part of a three-year £600m investment plan.
The bakeries will bake bread from raw dough and increase its offer of speciality breads. They will join new delicatessen counters and the introduction of international food brands
The retailer’s Kensington High Street store is the first to benefit from the revamp. Commenting on the development, store marketing and design director, Nayna McIntosh, said: “Our horticulture was starting to feel very supermarket”.
NP comment: “This is the Whole Foods Market effect in action. Whole Foods raised the bar for natural food retailing at the large-scale level when it arrived in the UK in 2008. We’ve seen John Lewis and Waitrose respond quickly with their new Food Halls, and now M&S is rolling out its version, complete with chalk-boards and Whole Foods-style wooden crates. It surely isn’t coincidence that the first store to get the Whole Foods-style revamp is the one next door to Whole Foods’ flag ship store on Kensington High Street.”
