Tight-lipped over opening date

Marks & Spencer announced in August that it is set to open a new store in Ashford.

The M&S Foodhall store will be located at the Warren Retail Park off Simone Weil Avenue, between the Staples and Poundland stores.

Work is under way on revamping the premises.

The store will bring more competition to the nearby Sainsbury’s and Waitrose shops.

The announcement of the new store followed a high level of supermarket interest in Ashford, with Aldi submitting a planning application for a supermarket near the town centre, and the Co-op set to build a new food shop in Godinton Park.

Morrisons had been linked with a move to the empty Victoria Road site, but abandoned its plans in 2013, leaving the way clear for Aldi to build a store there instead.

The 7,000 sq ft store will become M&S’s third shop in the town.

The company already has a clothing store at the Designer Outlet as well as its main shop in the town centre.

The Warren Retail Park premises used to be occupied by beds company Dreams, which has moved to the Ashford Retail Park, off the A2070 in Sevington.

M&S is not the first retailer to have more than one premises in the town, with Tesco trading from four sites, Poundland trading from three sites, and the Co-op also from three.

The company has remained tight-lipped about when the new store could open, despite putting in a planning application to put up its company logos and illuminated signs. There was also no comment back in the summer from M&S over whether the decision to open the new Foodhall could impact on its town centre store.