M&S has today confirmed its Ripon food hall is set to expand.

A source alerted us to the news this morning, after staff members at the St Michael’s Retail Park site were told the extension into the neighbouring unit was now “official”.

In a message, seen by the Stray Ferret, staff were told M&S had “exchanged on the extension”.

The message said staff would be made aware as soon as there was “an update on dates” but added "for now the date is early spring". It did not state whether this referred to the opening date of the expanded store, or when work will commence.

The Stray Ferret contacted M&S for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

M&S last month confirmed it was considering expanding the food hall into next door vacant units.

It came after the Stray Ferret reported on a planning application submitted in June, which sought approval for eight additional parent and child parking spaces, new EV parking spaces, a substation and two new trolley bays. It also proposed to reconfigure two of the food hall entrances. 

But the real clue lay in a letter submitted by agent Savills, which talked about “upsizing of the existing M&S operation at the retail park”. 

Retail park history

The Stray Ferret has followed the future of the empty units closely after German retailer Lidl scrapped plans to open at the site off Rotary Way in January.

It was granted planning permission in September 2021 but work never commenced and the deal fell through.

The Stray Ferret understood at the time Lidl’s contract had expired following ongoing delays in the project.

The three neighbouring units have remained vacant since M&S opened in 2020. One of them will now be occupied by the expanded M&S.