Marks and Spencer Out of town store, Gemini, Europa Blvd, Westbrook, Warrington, Cheshire, England, UK, WA5 7WG

Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home products and food products. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index On 22 May 2018, it was confirmed that over 100 stores will have closed by 2022 in a "radical" plan. On 18 August 2020, M&S stated that they would cut 7, 000 jobs over the next three months owing to the coronavirus pandemic. In May 2021, the company announced plans to close another 30 shops over the next 10 years as part of its turnaround plan The company was founded by a partnership between Michael Marks, a Polish Jew born in Slonim (now Belarus), who had migrated to Leeds, England in the early 1880s, and Thomas Spencer, a cashier from the English market town of Skipton in North Yorkshire In 1901, Marks moved to the Birkenhead open market, where he amalgamated his business with Spencer. In 1903, the two men were allocated stall numbers 11 & 12 in the centre aisle, and there they opened the Penny Bazaar. The company left Birkenhead Market on 24 February 1923. The next few years saw Michael Marks and Tom Spencer move the original Leeds Penny Bazaar to 20, Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, and they also opened market stalls in many locations around the North West of England Marks and Spencer, known colloquially as "Marks and Sparks", or "M&S", made its reputation in the early 20th century with a policy of only selling British-made goods (it started to back down from this policy in the 1990s). It entered into long-term relationships with British manufacturers, and sold clothes and food under the "St Michael" brand