Marks and Spencer PLC (LON:MKS) reportedly plans to open larger supermarkets in a bid to revive its struggling food business.
The retailer will open new superstores that offer its full range of food to bring in consumers who prefer to do a big weekly grocery shop over smaller more frequent purchases, according to the Mail on Sunday.
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M&S has a chain of convenience stores branded Simply Food but they are too small to stock the company’s full line of food products.
The plan is to reorganise areas devoted to clothing into more space to sell food at its larger existing stores.
A store would devote about 12,000 sq ft to holding the full line of M&S food products, compared to about 7,000ft on average at Simply Food stores.
M&S believes if shoppers can access its full range of food, they are likely to buy more.
The company will also start selling its food online for the first time next year after it signed a £1.5bn deal with online food delivery firm Ocado PLC (LON:OCDO). Under the deal, Ocado will offer the full M&S product line for home delivery.
Last May, M&S announced that it would close 100 stores by 2022 as part of a plan to have fewer, larger clothing and homeware stores in better locations.