Marks & Spencer has opened its first ‘airside’ stores at Heathrow Airport. Located at terminal 5, one store offers a wide selection of the M&S Food on the Move range, while the second focuses on gifting.

As part of M&S’s store rotation and renewal program, the stores expand M&S’s existing convenience estate, consisting of fifteen landside airport stores across the UK and Europe. The new stores will support M&S’s strategy to bring more exceptional food products to new customers, expanding its reach from the 32 million who shop in stores across the UK to those 200,000 passengers travelling through the country’s busiest airport every day.

Alex Freudmann, Managing Director at M&S Food says Terminal 5 is the UK’s busiest terminal, making it the perfect location to debut the airside offer.

“Our stores program is focused on making sure we have the right stores in the right place with the right space, whether these are full-line, food halls or convenience stores,” he said.

“This launch builds on the success of our well-established landside airport stores across the UK and allows us to serve customers even closer to their departure gates. Whether travellers are looking for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or a British gift to take home, we’re aiming to bring some M&S magic to their journey through Heathrow.”

The stores offer a selection of Food on the Move, M&S gifts including Percy Pigs, biscuit tins and the Big Daddy chocolate bar. Premium finishes and signature M&S Food colours have been used in the store design to showcase great quality M&S products.

Ross Baker, CCO at Heathrow said:“We are delighted to welcome M&S’s first airside food stores to Heathrow. This partnership reflects our ambition to make every journey better by offering passengers more choice, quality and convenience at every stage of their trip. M&S is a much-loved British brand, and we are confident the new stores will prove popular with passengers passing through Terminal 5 this summer.”

Heathrow is the UK’s international gateway and largest airport in Europe – connecting 230 destinations across 85 countries. The airport welcomes over 200,000 passengers on roughly 1,300 flights each day, and serves as Britain’s hub for trade, tourism and investment.