Marks & Spencer is looking to close its large Covent Garden store to cope with a number of customers swapping the High Street for online shopping, the Evening Standard can reveal.
The 20,000-square-foot Long Acre shop, which has a café, food hall and clothing department, is set to close in 2018 under plans being mooted.
The FTSE 100 retailer is in discussions with its landlord, The Mercers Company.
About 125 staff are based at the site, and they would be redeployed elsewhere in Marks & Spencer’s London estate.
The retailer declined to comment on rumours that it was facing a large rent rise at the store. Its business rates bill is set to rise 41.7% to £1.7 million this year, according to consultancy Daniel Watney.
A spokesman for M&S said: “We’re changing our UK store estate, opening new Foodhalls and Simply Food stores and improving our clothing and home stores.”
The proposal comes five months after the firm announced plans to close six large shops and open 34 smaller sites. The Covent Garden branch closure had not been mentioned.
Chief executive Steve Rowe said at the time: “Our customers’ shopping habits are changing. Picking up food for now or tonight rather than doing one big shop or browsing, and shopping online and collecting in store are great examples of this.”
