UAE | Marks & Spencer will expand its M&S Food business in the UAE by opening five new large-format Foodhalls over the next 12 months, in partnership with Al-Futtaim.
The new destination stores will offer a full M&S Food offer outside the UK for the first time. The format is scalable, with potential for more stores in time, as M&S expands globally.
The first new M&S Foodhall will open at Dubai Festival City in December, where M&S’ franchise partner, Al-Futtaim, has operated a Fashion store since 2018 and currently welcomes over 420,000 customers a year.
At 15,327 sq. ft., Dubai Festival City will be the largest M&S Foodhall outside the UK, offering more than 3,500 M&S products alongside 500 new locally sourced products carefully curated for the market.
Bringing together more than 200 trusted UK suppliers, including local suppliers such as Let’s Eat and Domus, the store will let customers tick off everything on their shopping list and complete a full weekly shop.
It will also introduce M&S flowers internationally for the first time, alongside new hospitality concepts not used by M&S before, including a Fruit Butcher, as well as tried-and-tested concepts that will be a first for the Middle East, such as a Sushi Counter.
M&S will also be lowering prices across over half of the Foodhall in the UAE, offering the same products at the same exceptional quality expected from M&S.
“Our purpose is to bring the best of M&S to more customers around the world. Building on the strength of our Fashion business in the Middle East, these new large format Foodhalls are an exciting opportunity to introduce more customers in the UAE to the quality, innovation and trusted value M&S Food is known for,” said Mark Lemming, Managing Director of International at M&S.
“By bringing a broader range of M&S Food together under one roof, we can become a bigger part of our customers’ everyday lives, giving them more choice and more reasons to shop with us more often as we continue to grow our presence in the region.”
Al Futtaim have operated M&S stores in the Middle East for nearly 30 years. With strong success in its Fashion business, M&S is now looking to scale its Food business, which already has an established brand awareness of 55 percent in the UAE.
Wassim Arabi, President, Retail of Al-Futtaim, said that the partnership with M&S spans nearly three decades, built on a shared commitment to quality, customer trust and a deep understanding of consumers’ evolving needs.
“The launch of this new Foodhall is an important milestone in that journey, bringing an exciting, elevated food shopping experience to our customers,” said Arabi.
“By combining M&S’s exceptional food and trusted quality with Al-Futtaim’s local market expertise and operational capabilities, we are setting a new benchmark for food retail in the UAE. We are proud to keep strengthening this longstanding partnership and look forward to what comes next.”
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