Marks & Spencer is set to close the cafés in 11 of its smaller food-only stores.

The retailer emphasised that the move will not result in layoffs. All impacted employees will be reassigned to other roles within the company’s existing stores.

The space freed up by the closures will be used to expand the range of food products available to customers.

Less than 4% of the group’s 316 food shops will be affected by the change.

A spokesperson stated that the move is intended to “modernise our food business and offer the best of M&S Food to more people, more often,” and includes investment in new coffee shops.

This includes opening brand-new coffee shops offering food and barista-made Fairtrade coffee, including at the new Bristol Cabot Circus store.

The café closures form part of a broader £300m investment and store rotation initiative designed to increase the number of M&S food halls.

The group has been converting several former full-line stores into food-only outlets and upgrading existing food stores. It aims to expand its estate to 420 food stores by the end of 2028.

The announcement follows a difficult period for the retailer, which expects to incur around £300m in costs after a cyberattack in April 2025 forced it to suspend online orders for six weeks.

In an update following the cyber breach, the retailer confirmed that “some personal customer data has been taken, but there is no evidence that it has been shared”.

The personal data could include contact details, date of birth and online order history, but excludes account passwords and useable card or payment details.