M&S to shut town centre store in May
BOSSES CONFIRM HISTORIC CLOSURE
MARKS and Spencer will close its Huddersfield town centre store at 5.30pm on Saturday, May 4, for the last time – more than eight decades after it first opened.
The store is one of the longest established businesses in Hudders- field town centre and its impending closure, revealed in mid-January, sent shockwaves through the town’s traders, politicians and shoppers.
At the time the company said it was “consulting with 71 colleagues on the proposed closure” with many set to be redeployed.
Politicians were furious with Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman slamming the decision as a “disgrace” and wondering whether the company’s senior management team had “gone mad.”
Hu d d e r s f i e l d was just one of 17 stores M&S had earmarked for closure.
But the decision was not entirely a surprise given that M&S said as long ago as May last year it was looking to close more than 100 stores by 2022 as it accelerated a transformation programme that would see thousands of jobs put at risk.
The closures will affect its clothing and home stores which have underperformed for several years.
M&S in Huddersfield first opened in 1894, 10 years after it was first founded in Leeds. It closed in 1925, then reopened in its present unit in New Street in 1934.
The nearest stores to Huddersfield are the Foodhall in the Gallagher retail park at Waterloo; Halifax nine miles away and Birstall at the Junction 27 retail park 11 miles away. Mr Sheerman told the Examiner when the initial announcement was made: “Has M&S gone mad? They should have a presence in every university town in the country.
Proposing to close M&S Huddersfield was
a difficult decision
“Huddersfield is a typical town of Britain and if they can’t make it work in a thriving university town like Huddersfield they are in deep trouble.”
Mr Sheerman said he was confident of being able to get a meeting with chief executive Steve Rowe or his management team. The MP intends to put a “strong case” in favour of keeping the M&S Huddersfield store open.
An M&S spokeswoman said: “Proposing to close M&S Huddersfield was a difficult decision.
“Over the past few weeks we’ve been consulting with our colleagues and, following this rigorous process, the decision has been made to close our store on Saturday May 4.
“We’d like to thank our customers, the local community and their representatives for the feedback they’ve given.
“We hope to see lots of customers continuing to shop with us at our other stores in the region, including Halifax and our Simply Food at Gallagher Retail Park, as well as on M&S.com.”