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Marks & Spencer supermarket in Paris: »Virtually impossible to offer products in the usual quality«
Photo: IAN LANGSDON / EPA
The British supermarket chain Marks & Spencer has to close more than half of its branches in France due to delivery problems after Brexit.
The food and textile company announced that eleven of the 20 stores were affected.
The “lengthy and complex export process” after the United Kingdom left the EU restricted the supply “significantly”.
All eleven branches that Marks & Spencer operates together with its French partner SFH are to be closed by the end of the year.
Most of it is in Paris.
The remaining nine branches, which are operated jointly with Lagarde Travel Retail in airports and train stations, are to remain open for the time being.
Continuation according to the current status "impossible"
Marks & Spencer has been serving its customers in France for a long time, the decision was "not an easy one," said the managing director for international markets, Paul Friston.
According to the current status, however, it is "practically impossible to offer fresh and chilled products in the usual quality".
In Great Britain itself, Brexit, in combination with the corona pandemic, bureaucracy and new immigration rules, is causing delivery problems for many products. There is an acute shortage of truck drivers in the UK, resulting in bottlenecks and empty shelves, especially in the food sector. The British government had therefore announced that it would postpone the full border controls for goods from the EU planned in the course of Brexit from October 2021 to January 2022.