8/1/2009East End's M&S beats store cuts
MARKS and Spencer will open a flagship store in the East End of Glasgow despite scrapping dozens of its shops.
The High Street giant is going ahead with plans to set up shop at the Glasgow Fort as part of a £25million extension of the shopping park.
Confirmation comes just 24 hours after the chain said Scotland will escape the closure programme which will see 25 Simply Food shops and two stores being axed, along with 1230 jobs, elsewhere in the UK.
It is understood M&S chiefs are also going ahead with plans to open a showpiece store across four floors at the new-look Buchanan Galleries and a Simply Food store being built in Bishop-briggs at Strathkelvin Retail Park.
M&S will be the anchor tenant when the Fort development extends retail space at the Easterhouse complex by almost 50%.
An extra 175,000sq ft of shopping is being created of which 80,000sq ft will be taken up by the new M&S.
The retail giant will recruit up to 300 at the Fort.
Fears that the financial crisis facing M&S would jeopardise the East End project were dismissed by Fort manager Phil Goodman who said: "It's business as usual."
He said M&S had already signed a pre-lease agreement and that the store would go ahead as planned.
The High Street giant is going ahead with plans to set up shop at the Glasgow Fort as part of a £25million extension of the shopping park.
Confirmation comes just 24 hours after the chain said Scotland will escape the closure programme which will see 25 Simply Food shops and two stores being axed, along with 1230 jobs, elsewhere in the UK.
It is understood M&S chiefs are also going ahead with plans to open a showpiece store across four floors at the new-look Buchanan Galleries and a Simply Food store being built in Bishop-briggs at Strathkelvin Retail Park.
M&S will be the anchor tenant when the Fort development extends retail space at the Easterhouse complex by almost 50%.
An extra 175,000sq ft of shopping is being created of which 80,000sq ft will be taken up by the new M&S.
The retail giant will recruit up to 300 at the Fort.
Fears that the financial crisis facing M&S would jeopardise the East End project were dismissed by Fort manager Phil Goodman who said: "It's business as usual."
He said M&S had already signed a pre-lease agreement and that the store would go ahead as planned.
He added: "We believe that they see a new store at Glasgow Fort as a highly viable proposition."
Councillors have already backed the multi-million pound extension although no starting date has yet been decided.
The development was to have been completed by the end of this year but the credit crunch is expected to delay building work. The new M&S store is not now expected to begin trading until next year.
M&S chiefs today refused to discuss any details of their new store so soon after announcing major job losses and closures but an insider said: "You need have no worries that it won't."