By Beverly Rademacher

Copyright expressandstar

The city’s flagship department store in Dudley Street, which has been serving customers since 1929, is set to close for good on Saturday September 27.

The closure is part of a wider plan by M&S to reduce its traditional department stores offering a complete range of clothing, food and home products from 247 stores to 180 particularly those performing less well since Covid, while opening 100 new food halls by April 2026.

In light of the new focus on the business’s food offering, store bosses have said they are keen to open a new M&S Food outlet in Wolverhampton and they’ve stressed they have been working closely with Wolverhampton Council to try to find a suitable site. There has been some speculation this could be on the St John’s Retail Park, although this has not been confirmed.

With the closure of the 96-year-old high street store now just days away and long-serving staff members set to lose their jobs, however, M&S bosses have admitted they have not identified a suitable site at this time.

Calum Telford, regional manager at M&S, said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to all our customers who have shopped at M&S Wolverhampton over the years and to our colleagues, past and present. We remain committed to Wolverhampton and our search continues for a suitable alternative food location in the city. In the meantime, we will continue working hard to serve customers at our stores across the Black Country, including Merry Hill and our Wednesbury foodhall.”

M&S has not confirmed how many staff at the city centre store are losing their jobs. The company previously said store colleagues would be offered alternative roles with M&S where possible.

When news of the store closure first broke in June, Wolverhampton Council’s cabinet member for city development, jobs and skills Councillor Chris Burden said the authority would do all it could to work with M&S to try to identify suitable alternative locations that would suit the new business model.

He also said the council would be joining forces with the DWP and city partners to support workers losing their jobs and he added that the authority wants to see the privately owned 90,000 sq ft Dudley Street building that has been home to M&S for nearly a century brought back into use quickly.

The council has said it understands “M&S’s difficult decision was driven by wider, changing market conditions and customer behaviour” and that the authority has a bright vision for the future of the city’s changing centre including the building of new homes at Smithgate and Canalside, a growing commercial district at the Interchange and the brand new £61million City Learning Quarter.