New M&S Food Store proposed for Coleraine’s Riverside Retail Park

The plans involve a new 17,100 sq ft Foodhall - offering customers the quality and freshness of M&S Food, with over 5,000 food and drink products.

Philip Conlon, Head of Region for M&S in Northern Ireland said, “We are always thinking about how we can deliver great service for our customers.

“Riverside Retail Park is the ideal location to open a new M&S Foodhall to serve not only the Coleraine area, but the entire North Coast.

“The new Foodhall will provide customers with a bigger and better shopping experience, as well as convenient and accessible car parking.”

A spokesperson for Riverside Retail Park said: “This will be a significant investment in Coleraine of £2.5 million - creating 40 jobs during the construction phase and supporting a further 70 full time and part time jobs when the store is opened and operational.

“Given the economic uncertainty caused by Covid-19 and by Brexit we believe this investment represents a real vote of confidence in Coleraine.”

M&S has 21 stores in Northern Ireland – Abbeycentre, Ballymena, Banbridge (outlet) Bangor, Belfast, Enniskillen, Foyleside, Lisburn, Newry, Newtownbreda, Omagh, Aldergrove, Armagh, Boucher Road, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon, Crescent Link, Malone, Upper Road.

M&S opened its first store in Northern Ireland 54 years ago, in 1967.

The well known company employs 2,800 full and part-time colleagues throughout its stores in Northern Ireland.

A spokesperson for M&S said: “Sourcing locally is really important to M&S and Northern Ireland is one of our biggest supply regions with 11 direct suppliers around 1,600 farms producing quality product including milk, eggs, beef, pork, butter and bread.”