Marks & Spencer has announced a £30 million investment in its Scottish physical stores, with plans to introduce five new and expanded locations within the next 18 months. As part of this initiative, a £15 million injection is earmarked for Aberdeen Union Square, where the store’s footprint will nearly double. Representing one of the most substantial private sector investments in Aberdeen in recent years, the upgraded store will feature a market-style food hall, along with expanded clothing, home, and beauty departments. Set to open in spring 2025, this establishment will rank as the fourth-largest M&S store in Scotland. Rachel Rankine, M&S’s North East regional manager, expressed confidence in Aberdeen’s retail future, stating, “The scale of our investment is a vote of confidence in the future of retail in Aberdeen city centre, with a flagship store on the same scale as city centre stores in Birmingham and Liverpool.” In addition to the Aberdeen development, M&S will unveil a food hall in Linlithgow later this month and launch a full-line store in Dundee’s Gallagher Retail Park this summer. Furthermore, the retailer will make its debut in Largs with a new food hall scheduled to open in early 2025. This £30 million investment supplements the £32 million already invested in eleven Scottish stores over the past four years, which includes the introduction of new food halls in Paisley, Hamilton, and East Kilbride. The investment aligns with M&S’s goal to become the UK’s leading omnichannel retailer. The company aims to transition 247 existing stores into 180 higher quality, higher productivity full-line stores while also establishing over 100 food sites by the 2027/28 financial year. In addition to this current investment, M&S has inaugurated eleven new and revamped stores in Scotland over the past four years, including new food halls in Straiton (Edinburgh), Hamilton, Falkirk Central, Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, and Paisley. This also involves renewals and expansions in Glasgow Silverburn, Edinburgh Gyle, Anniesland, Glasgow West End, and Bishopbriggs. Furthermore, two convenience stores recently opened in Glasgow Battlefield and Glasgow Queen Street. Earlier in the year, fellow retailer Aldi unveiled plans to invest £56 million in its Scottish portfolio, intending to open three new stores in 2024. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Screwfix is targeting 60 new store openings by the end of the financial year in the UK and Ireland, despite its parent company Kingfisher lowering its profit guidance for the 2023/24 financial year. The DIY retailer opened 12 new stores in the first six months of the year in the UK and Ireland, and is also eyeing further expansion into Europe. Kingfisher had also revealed that B&Q has expanded its trade-focused banner, TradePoint. The retailer opened 18 new counters in the first half of the year, extending its presence within B&Q’s estate to 207, over two-thirds of stores. This comes despite Kingfisher lowering its pre-tax profit guidance for the year from a previous estimation of £634m to £590m. During the first half of 2023, the group’s statutory pre-tax profit fell by 33.1% to £317 million. Despite an increase in like-for-like (LFL) sales in the UK and Ireland of 1.7%, the group saw poorer European performance in France and Poland, where LFL sales fell by 3.8% and 10.9% respectively. The group’s total sales increased by 1.1% to £6.88bn. Thierry Garnier, chief executive officer, said: “Our LFL sales in H1 were slightly ahead of expectations, against a backdrop of unseasonal weather and ongoing macroeconomic challenges in our markets. We saw good growth in our UK banners, with Screwfix gaining significant market share.” “Trading in the UK & Ireland continues to have positive momentum. However, to better reflect our performance in H1 and the trading environment in our markets, we have updated our profit guidance for this year and are proactively managing our operating costs accordingly. We remain very positive on the medium-to-long term outlook for home improvement growth in our markets, and confident in our ability to grow market share and deliver on our medium-term financial objectives”, he added. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals 

American real estate group Realty is in has reached a deal with Ediston Property Investment Company to purchase its entire property estate for £200.8m. Ediston confirmed it had reached an agreement with RI UK 1 Limited, a subsidiary of Realty, over the sale of its 11 site-strong retail park estate. Eidston currently invest in retail parks in Stirling, Haddington, Sunderland, Widnes, Barnsley, Prestatyn, Hull, Wrexham, Glasgow, Daventry, and Rhyl. The group said its portfolio has a value of £208.4m with a contracted rental income of £16.5m. William Hill, chairman of Ediston, said: “The board was very pleased with the interest shown in the company, with proposals being received from a number of potential counterparties. Having considered multiple options, and after detailed analysis, the board determined a sale of the property portfolio to Realty Income was the best means of maximising shareholder value. “The board unanimously considers the disposal to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders as a whole and recommends that shareholders vote in favour of the resolution at the general meeting.” The group’s general meeting will be held on 26 September. If the acquisition is accepted unconditionally, Ediston’s board will look to seek shareholder approval to voluntarily liquidate the company and distribute all of its assets – which would consist entirely of cash – to shareholders. It was recently reported that Florida-based Realty is eyeing the purchase of Inverness Shopping Park, the Kingston Centre in Milton Keynes, and Serpentine Green in Peterborough from British Land. Also included in the deal is a portfolio of six data centres and offices based in London, which are currently leased to Vodafone. The New York-listed company entered the UK property market in 2019 when it formed a joint partnership with British Land to take ownership of 12 Sainsbury’s supermarkets, in a deal worth £429m. It now has a British portfolio worth over £2bn, having invested in a number of supermarkets, DIY stores, and retail parks. Realty previously told its investors that it sees the UK as an attractive investment hotspot. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals 

The owner of Wagamama has said it is targeting between 200 and 220 restaurants in the long-term, up from its current estate of around 160 UK sites. The Restaurant Group said that strong returns from regional restaurants has given it confidence to accelerate its expansion plans, with the aim of now opening between eight to 10 sites from the 2024 financial year onwards. This comes as the group, which also owns the Frankie & Benny’s chain and the Brunning & Price pub group, releases its interim results for the first half of the 2023 financial year. The group said it was also aiming to open between one to three “high quality” Brunning & Price pubs from the 2024 financial year onwards. During the 26 weeks ending 2 July 2023, the group’s total revenue increased by 10% to £467.4m, up from £423.4m the previous year. Whilst the group’s Wagamama, pubs, and concessions businesses had all seen year-on-year increases in like-for-like sales of 7%, 8%, and 29% respectively, its leisure business saw a fall in sales of 3%. The Restaurant Group said that despite more resilient trading in the third quarter, it has continued to rationalise its leisure estate. It now expects to reduce the size of this business to around 76 sites by the end of the financial year, down from 116 sites previous year. This would mean that the group’s two-year rationalisation programme would be delivered in 12 months. The group will hope to achieve this through: the exercising of lease expiries or break clauses on 14 sites; the sale of eight freehold sites; the conversion of three sites to Wagamama restaurants by the end of the 2024 financial year; and the acceleration of the disposal of between 12 and 17 sites through agreements with landlords or alternative tenants. The Restaurant Group expects to exit the vast majority of lease obligations on the circa 40 closed sites by the end of the 2024 financial year. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals 

The owners of Asda are reportedly considering a £500m sale of some of the supermarket retailer’s property portfolio in an effort to reduce debts. The billionaire Issa brothers, Mohsin and Zuber, with the backing of TDR Capital, are said to be in negotiations with Australian firm Macquarie Asset Management regarding a sale. The deal would see Macquarie purchase the ground rent leases of around 50 Asda stores, with a clause allowing the supermarket retailer to reassume control of the sites at the end of the 50-year term. Asda would then be able to pay lower rents at these stores while raising higher amounts of equity. The Issa brothers acquired the Asda estate from Walmart in 2021 in a deal worth £6.8bn, however some £2.75bn of debt was included in the transaction. In March, it was reported that the billionaire brothers were eyeing the sale-and-leaseback of the entire Asda estate, worth £8.6bn. The supermarket retailer then disposed of 25 stores to American investor Realty Income in a sale-and-leaseback deal worth £650m. Asda recently reported an increase in sales during the second quarter, which the supermarket said reflected the “strength” of its customer proposition. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals