M&S May Take Over Whole Foods Market Site
Retailer reportedly looking at empty Fulham Broadway unit
The closed up premises of the Whole Foods Market
February 12, 2025
A former Whole Foods Market in West London which has sat empty since last summer is to be taken on by Marks and Spencer, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands.
Whole Foods Market, a chain specialising in organic produce, announced last year it would be shutting two stores in the capital including its Fulham Broadway premises. The site has remained vacant following its eventual closure in June, with a poster headed ‘We’re closed’ still stuck to its frontage.
The LDRS however understands Marks and Spencer (M&S) is to take on the tenancy and move into the empty unit. The supermarket chain declined to comment, with a spokesperson refusing to confirm or deny the claim.
Whole Foods Market’s announcement it would be closing the store last year was met with consternation locally. FulhamSW6.com reported how it opened to ‘great fanfare’ in 2014, though added there was some indication it may have been struggling in recent years, in particular after it reduced its trading space by shutting its first floor.
An online petition was launched in a bid to prevent the closure of the Fulham store, drawing several-hundred signatures. This was however to no avail, with the shutters coming down last summer. As well as the Fulham site, Whole Foods Market had said it would be shutting its Richmond store and its Dartford distribution centre.
Whole Foods Market has been shut since June 2024
A spokeswoman told trade title The Grocer at the time that the closures would ‘pave the way for growth’, adding it ‘will allow us to invest in enhancing the customer and team member experience as we expand our footprint to serve more customers and communities in the UK’.
Whole Food Markets currently operates a handful of stores across London including one in High Street Kensington. A new store on Kings Road in Chelsea is due to open soon.
The Broadway has been hit with several closures in recent years, with departures including Wilko in 2023. A new JD Wetherspoon is however due to be among the new additions, after approval was granted last summer to open a pub in the former ticket office by the station.
Ben Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter
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