Marks and Spencer will close a landmark high-street store this week after 122 years.
The national shopping giant will bring down the shutters on its Hill Street shop on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough for the final time on Saturday (April 15).
News of the closure was announced in January when bosses said the decision was part of wider transformation plans.
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Speaking at the time M&S Regional Manager Craig Baldock said: “This has been a tough decision but means we can invest in many of our twenty-one other stores in the North East including M&S Teesside, so we keep pace with the demands of our customers today and in the future.
“Our priority now is to talk to our colleagues about what this announcement means for them and to support them through these changes.”
It becomes the latest Marks and Spencer store to close in the region after Darlington, Durham, South Shields, Redcar and Hartlepool all lost shops over the past decade.
A petition launched in a bid to save the retail giant’s Middlesbrough site was signed by more than 1,000 people.
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The closure news came after M&S announced it would open 20 new stores this year including 12 food halls and eight full-line locations.
The group confirmed that while 20 stores have been lined up for launch in 2023-24, it could only announce the locations of nine of the sites so far.
Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald described news of the closure as a “devastating blow”.
He said: “The announcement that Marks and Spencer is to close its Middlesbrough store is a devastating blow.
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“The flagship store has been part of Middlesbrough for more than 100 years and is a vital and much-loved part of our retail offer.
“To lose jobs is truly awful for all the employees affected and to hear this news after Marks and Spencer recorded a successful Christmas trading period is particularly hard to understand."
Stores in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Wrexham and Bolton are also earmarked for closure this year.
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