Marks and Spencer is stepping up plans to shrink its store network after it plunged to a £201m loss following a year of lockdowns.

The retailer, which currently has just over 250 “full line” sites selling clothing and home as well as food ranges, is aiming to cut this number to around 180.

It has already closed 59 such stores plus 15 food-only sites and eight outlets under previously-outlined plans and said the effect of the pandemic means it can now move faster.

Some stores will be switched to “food only” and others moved to new locations while around 30 will close, Marks and Spencer said.

It is planning 17 new or expanded full-line shops over the next two years including a number of sites that were previously part of collapsed department store chain Debenhams.

M&S’s full-year loss for the year to 27 March compares to a profit of £67m a year before.

It said clothing and home sales were down by 31% – with contrasting fortunes for stores, where sales were down by 56%, and online, where climbed by 54%.

Food revenues grew by 1.3% even before accounting for the contribution of the online delivery tie-up with Ocado, which now sells M&S products and delivered a £78m boost to its bottom line.

Trading since the reopening of non-essential stores in April has been ahead of pre-pandemic levels in 2019 but it was unclear whether demand would be sustained, M&S said.

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