M&S to shut a third of core store estate over a decade

* Currently trades from 254 full line stores

* Targeting 180 in 10 years

* To open 17 new stores in next two years

* Openings include six on former Debenhams sites

By James Davey

LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer plans to have
about 30% fewer combined clothing and food stores in 10 years
time as more sales shift online, but will still open new shops
when prime sites - like six former Debenhams outlets - become
free, it said on Wednesday.

The British retailer, in the midst of its latest turnaround
attempt after decades of failed reinventions, has closed or
relocated 59 such "full line" stores over the last three years,
leaving it with 254.

Its new target is to have a fully modernised core of about
180, in addition to its chain of food-only stores.

CEO Steve Rowe said that would be achieved by "rotating the
estate" at 110 locations. About 35 full line stores will be
relocated, about 45 will become food stores and about 30 sites
will be exited over a ten year period, he told reporters after
M&S published 2020-21 results.

"The market dynamics have changed and the effect of the
pandemic means that we need to move faster," Rowe said.

"The good news is that there has rarely been a better time
to acquire new space."

Rowe said M&S has 17 new or extended full line
stores in planning, including six former Debenhams sites, in the
next two years.

Debenhams collapsed in December, with its last stores
closing earlier this month.

To help fund the store estate plans, M&S plans to raise at
least 200 million pounds ($283 million) by redeveloping freehold
and long leasehold stores, including its flagship Marble Arch
store in central London.

"We're committed to stores and believe they could be a true
source of competitive advantage, but they do need to be the
right stores in the right location with the right services and
they have to work with online," added Rowe.

M&S estimated the cash costs of the programme at about 260
million pounds.

($1 = 0.7066 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey. Editing by Mark Potter)