Bristol鈥檚 mayor Marvin Rees has said Marks and Spencer鈥檚 decision to leave the city centre after nearly 70 years is "a blow鈥 but 鈥渘ot a surprise鈥.
The retailer confirmed on Tuesday (October 12) that it was in consultation with 89 staff over the decision to shut its food, clothing and homewares store in Broadmead.
The shop, which has had a base in Bristol's shopping quarter since 1952, is set to shut for good in January - although no specific date has yet been given.
Mr Rees said a shift in shopping habits, which was "exacerbated by the pandemic", had taken shoppers away from the high street and onto online stores.
鈥淚鈥檓 sad to see Marks and Spencer decide to leave Broadmead and end almost seventy years of association with the city centre," he said.
鈥淲hilst this closure is a blow to our already struggling high streets, it is not a surprise. Significant challenges in the national economy are seeing flagship department stores close across the country."
It is understood the closure is part of a wider 海角视频 property reshape by the retailer, which has 17 other branches across the South West, including at Cribbs Causeway and Longwell Green.
As BusinessLive understands, M&S has a financial interest in the building - although it does not own the property outright - and will be working with Bristol City Council on plans for its future redevelopment.
When BusinessLive asked the council how it would decide what to do with the building and whether there were any plans in the pipeline for its use, it did not provide any details.
Mr Rees said the city centre鈥檚 working group, which was established in 2017, was helping to 鈥渂etter understand鈥 the challenges facing the centre of Bristol.
He said: 鈥淸The working group] sits alongside the work we are doing across Bristol to support our high streets and economic hubs that help hold communities together.
鈥淭his includes our recently launched Welcome Back Fund to provide money to encourage people back to the high street, with further grants planned to bring vacant units back to life.鈥
Vivienne Kennedy, manager of the Broadmead Business Improvement District (BID), which works with retailers to help drive footfall in the area, said the announcement was 鈥渟urprising and disappointing鈥 for the city centre.
She said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 obviously a difficult time for the store manager and his team, who the Broadmead BID team will be offering to support in any way we can over the following weeks.鈥
It is understood that M&S will continue to invest in its Cribbs Causeway store and will be working with Broadmead staff to try to redeploy them to other branches.
In May, M&S announced proposals to shut another 30 shops over the next decade as part of turnaround plans.
The company made a pre-tax loss of 拢201.2m for the financial year ending March 27 - down from a 拢67.2m profit the previous year.
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