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M&S Plans Second Warehouse In Bradford To Boost Online Capacity

By Dayeeta Das
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M&S Plans Second Warehouse In Bradford To Boost Online Capacity

British retailer Marks & Spencer has announced plans to increase its online capacity by building a new automated online warehouse in its existing distribution centre in Bradford, northern England.

M&S said the expansion would create 300 new jobs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend towards more digital shopping, with M&S's online sales growing 34% in the first half of its 2020-21 year.

The Bradford site currently delivers both clothing and food to M&S stores.

The new investment will utilise existing vacant space within the centre to create a new online warehouse for M&S.com.

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The expansion means that by Christmas 2021 M&S will serve online customers from its Castle Donington warehouse in central England, from Bradford and through its stores which act as micro-fulfilment centres.

‘More Digital Future’

Stephen Langford, director of M&S.com, said, “While it’s exciting our stores have reopened, growing our online business has never been more important and part of that is a behind the scenes network which means we can serve our customers as efficiently as possible.

“Building Bradford is a key way we’re setting ourselves up for a more digital future at M&S under the banner of MS2.”

The decision to invest in the new warehouse follows a successful trial over Christmas, where employees at the Bradford warehouse manually picked products to fulfil online orders.

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Bradford was selected for this extension due to its location, its excess space and as it is M&S’s most automated distribution centre, with a great engineering team already on site, the company added.

M&S opened the Bradford Distribution Centre in 2010. It is a carbon-neutral building which achieved BREEAM ‘Excellent’ certification – the leading environmental assessment method for buildings.

News by Reuters, additional reporting by ESM. For more Supply Chain stories, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.

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