Brexit-hit Marks & Spencer Closes French Stores

M&S said on Thursday that its remaining nine French franchise stores, run with Lagardere Travel Retail, will continue to trade and the pair were working on a sustainable future business model.

Chairman Archie Norman has complained for months that M&S was struggling to get goods into Ireland and France since Britain left the EU single market at the beginning of the year, due to the huge amount of extra paperwork.

"M&S has a long history of serving customers in France and this is not a decision we or our partner SFH have taken lightly," Paul Friston, M&S' international director, said.

"As things stand today, the supply chain complexities in place following the UK’s exit from the European Union, now make it near impossible for us to serve fresh and chilled products to customers to the high standards they expect, resulting in an ongoing impact to the performance of our business," he added.

The 11 stores that will close by the end of this year are located predominantly across the high streets of Paris, while the nine run by Lagardere are located in travel hubs such as airports, railway and metro stations.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the Brexit process.

"We believe that the approach we have taken is the correct one. It is something that the public voted for and it is already bringing benefits to the public," the spokesperson said. (Reuters)