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Shortbread and Earl Grey tea are coming to the Champs Elysées later this year as Marks & Spencer returns to France a decade after its retreat across the Channel prompted street protests in Paris.
The retailer replanted a British flag in the heart of the Gallic retail industry by announcing, 10 years after it quit the capital amid stern criticism from trade unions, politicians and ardent muffin fans, that it would open a shop on Paris's most famous boulevard before Christmas. As well as opening other general stores in shopping centres around Paris, M&S is in talks to open a number of Simply Food outlets in the city. In a first for the company, it will accompany the expansion with a new French-language website that will trade in euros.
The main M&S store on the Champs Elysées will extend to three floors and sell womenswear, lingerie and food, taking over a site occupied by the Esprit clothing chain. M&S executives are hoping that the group's return to France will receive a more positive response than its exit. In 2001, trade unions demonstrated against the closure or sale of 18 stores in France, with the loss of 1,650 jobs, plus a further 20 stores in Germany, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux countries. The reaction in France was particularly vociferous, with government ministers backing protests. However, M&S appears to have learned from its last foray: it has pledged to retain and retrain the 30 Esprit staff.
However, M&S is not expected to restrict its ambitions to France. The mainland Europe move has been expected for some time after Sir Stuart Rose, who chaired M&S until January this year, made clear his desire to reverse the 2001 exit.
M&S, which has more than 600 shops in Britain, has been expanding abroad aggressively in recent years, with new outlets in India, Dubai and China. It plans to generate up to a fifth of sales overseas. Bolland would not be drawn on further European expansion plans but said the French strategy of
targeting a major city with stores and covering the rest of the country with a
website could be replicated elsewhere. M&S's European operations include
stores in Greece, Poland and the Czech Republic. "We will use that blueprint for
other countries we might enter."
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