Aberdeen M&S to close amid investment plan

M&S is to close its St Nicholas Street store in Aberdeen city centre as it makes a £30m investment in locations around Scotland, the company has announced.

A £15m expansion of Aberdeen's Union Square M&S is part of the plan.

The work is scheduled to be completed in spring 2025, followed by the closure of the St Nicholas Street store.

M&S said Dundee, Edinburgh, Largs and Linlithgow were the other areas seeing either store openings or expansions.

The company said there would be no loss of any permanent jobs in Aberdeen as a result of the move.

The St Nicholas Street branch is just off Union Street, which runs through the heart of the Granite City and was once its flagship retail zone.

Rachel Rankine, North East regional manager for M&S, said:

"The scale of our investment is a vote of confidence in the future of retail in Aberdeen city centre, with a flagship store on the same scale as city centre stores in Birmingham and Liverpool."

M&S said the Aberdeen Union Square store would almost double in size.

M&S announced in 2022 it was speeding up a shake-up of its stores with 67 of its bigger shops to shut within five years.

Among recent Scottish closures was Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street branch in 2022.