Marks & Spencer announces huge change after key ‘success’ | World | News

Marks & Spencer is set to start selling food in Australia for the first time in a bid to grow the brand further globally. The British based supermarket has struck up a partnership to sell food in Coles supermarket stores down under.

Bosses have said this is a significant step for the M&S brand to grow its wholesale business to new global regions. Their food products will start being sold in Coles stores in two days, starting November 19 this week, with an extended range available for shoppers online.

This latests partnership with Coles follows the “success” of its wholesale deal with the Target supermarket chain in the US.

M&S launched its fashion supply agreement to the Australian market earlier this year with the David Jones department store.  There is a renewed focus on international business at the supermarket, which this latest expansion is part of.

This is a new vein for M&S to be operating in after scaling back some of its overseas franchise operations which included store closures in China and France.

Mark Lemming, managing director of international at M&S, said: “With consistent growth in Food in the UK business and strong brand momentum as the UK’s most trusted retailer there is now so much opportunity for us to grow our business globally.

“Wholesale is a relatively new channel for us, but one that provides lots of opportunity to scale, sell and serve our food business to even more customers around the world.”

Anna Croft, chief commercial officer at Coles, said: “We’re excited to join forces with Marks & Spencer to bring their quality food range to Australia, allowing millions of Aussies to savour the very best of British right here at home.”

M&S experienced a cyber attack earlier this year in April which resulted in the theft of customer data. The supermarket was forced to shut down its online operations and it impacted its physical stores. Profits for the company were significantly affected, costing around £136million this year.

Three months after the attack was detected, online operations were resumed in June, followed by click and collect in August.