RETAIL giant Marks and Spencer is eyeing up Teignmouth as a location for a new food store.

The seaside town is on a wish list of 68 locations in the south west where the company is actively looking for new sites for food stores.

It is part of a nationwide plan to double the size of the M&S food business.

In total, 500 areas across the country are on the new potential location list and unlocking these new sites will help the retailer’s plans to modernise its estate to 180 full line stores and 420 food stores.

Company bosses are particularly looking for large sites that could stock the full range of M&S food so the target size would be 18,000 square feet.

With 20 stores opening or renewing before the end of the financial year, creating 800 new jobs, M&S is picking up the pace on renewing in its store estate.

To grow the food business, M&S is looking to expand the size of its Food stores to stock a fuller range and attract more customers to do their weekly shop.

This includes areas where there is no M&S store currently, including Teignmouth.

All of these stores would be in the new renewal format with an extended range of M&S Food, wider aisles for bigger shopping trolleys and larger car parks for more family shoppers.

Alex Freudmann, Managing Director, M&S Food said: ‘The strong performance of our new M&S food stores gives us the confidence to explore even more locations across the UK, from Elgin to Exmouth.

‘With more than 20 stores opening or modernised before the end of the financial year, we are moving faster.

‘Our team want new sites where we could open a large M&S Food store as we deliver on our strategy to bring the right stores to the right places and offer the best shopping experience, range and availability for our customers.’