Marks & Spencer coming to Cirencester (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Marks & Spencer coming to Cirencester

MARKS and Spencer will be expanding into the Cotswolds with news the chain is to take over 28 Iceland stores around the country including Cirencester's Dyer Street branch.

The deal, which will be carried out on a leasehold basis, is due to be completed in March. The stores will then be refitted to reopen as M&S Simply Food stores between June and August this year.

Staff currently working at the Iceland store have been assured M&S will take them on as part of the changes.

A spokesman for M&S explained: "We are delighted to have acquired these sites which will enable us to accelerate the growth of our very popular and profitable Simply Food concept.

"The (new) stores are all in target locations for the Simply Food brand throughout the UK. The management and sales staff currently working in these stores will be transferred to M&S."

The news has been welcomed by the business community in the town and is expected to attract more shoppers to Cirencester.

Peter Stringfellow, vice-president of Cirencester Chamber of Commerce and owner of Crocodile in The Woolmarket, said: "I think this is very positive. People have been saying for 20 years that Cirencester needs a Marks and Spencer," he explained.

"It will certainly be a boost for the town. When Waitrose pulled out of this end of town almost ten years ago a lot of people thought the area would be doomed but that never proved to be the case but to have anything new here would certainly be welcome.

"Any blue chip company that wants to invest in Cirencester is going to be an asset."

However, the news has been treated with some caution as the loss of Iceland represents the loss of a popular supermarket at the other end of the price spectrum.

County, district and town councillor Deryck Nash, who represents the Chesterton ward, said: "A prestige food store like M&S will be of great benefit to certain sections of the town. But I regret the loss of Iceland for some of our less well off residents in Chesterton and the other deprived areas of the town. There are both positives and negatives to this."