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(Corrects in third paragraph to give Bolland's full name andjob title)
* Aims to expand overseas profits by 40 pct over 3 years
* To open 250 stores including 20 food outlets in Paris
* Around 60 pct of new outlets will be run as franchises
By James Davey
PARIS, April 1 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest clothingretailer Marks & Spencer Plc, hit at home by dwindlingsales, plans to expand its international stores by more than ahalf as part of a strategy to rebuild the 130-year-oldinstitution.
M&S, which sparked staff and customer protests when itbacktracked from a previous overseas growth plan and withdrewfrom mainland Europe in 2001, said it planned to expand itsoverseas profits by 40 percent over three years with the openingof 250 stores, including 20 food outlets in Paris.
The international expansion follows Chief Executive MarcBolland's three-year, 2.3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion)turnaround plan designed to transform M&S into a global,"multi-channel" retailer reaching customers through stores, theInternet and mobile devices.
"We need to build a brand internationally and be dot-comready. That's where our future is," Bolland told an investorseminar in Paris.
International expansion is far from risk-free and a numberof British retailers have hit problems when trying to moveoutside their home market. Tesco Plc for instance lastyear had to take a 1 billion pound writedown as it sold itsproblematic U.S. chain Fresh & Easy.
But with M&S having posted 10 straight quarters of decliningunderlying sales in general merchandise, which includesclothing, Bolland is looking overseas to provide some relief.
The group, which Bolland has led for almost four years, is forecast by analysts to report an 11th straight fall inquarterly sales on April 10 when it updates on recent trading.
With the British market making up around 90 percent of grouprevenue, M&S said it would seek to learn from the past when itrolls out its new overseas stores.
NEW OUTLETS
It will adopt a "bricks and clicks" strategy of openingflagship stores in key cities, supported by smaller food storesand an online service. It will also target a handful ofcountries, rather than taking the scattergun approach of thepast that proved too expensive.
In total M&S plans to open 250 stores to add to the 455already in operation. Around 60 percent of the new outlets willbe run as franchise outlets.
In the priority markets of Russia, China, India and theMiddle East it will open mostly clothing stores to tap intodemand for what it believes is a love of British goods.
It expects to have around 100 stores in India by 2016 andwill seek a local partner in China to further expand afterestablishing 15 wholly owned flagship stores there. It alsohopes to have 10 lingerie and beauty stores in Saudi Arabia inthe next two years, having seen the success of two outletsalready open there.
In western Europe, M&S plans to open flagship stores sellingfood and clothes in Brussels and Amsterdam, to add to flagshipoutlets already open in Paris and the Hague, helping to takesales from the region to an estimated 250 million pounds by thefinancial year through March 2017.
In the year to the end of March 2013, M&S's totalinternational revenue was 1.1 billion pounds.
The drive to grow abroad compliments the group's push toreshape its operations at home. M&S has spent heavily onrevamping its clothing operation, redesigning stores andoverhauling logistics and IT to complement a new web platformthat went live in February.
M&S shares, which fell on Monday to their lowest in nearlythree months, closed up 1.8 percent at 458.8 pence. Bycomparison the blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.8percent.($1 = 0.5998 British Pounds) (Writing by Kate Holton; Editing by David Holmes)
