M&S offloads Lifestore to Ilva

MARKS & SPENCER has finally offloaded its ill-fated Lifestore to Danish furniture retailer Ilva.

Ilva, which is keen to expand into Britain where it hopes to rival Ikea, has paid €52m for the 70,000sq ft store in Gateshead and another site in Thurrock that was never opened, M&S confirmed.

The Lifestore project was overseen by Vittorio Radice, the former boss of Habitat and Selfridges, with the Gateshead store costing €21m to fit out. The Gateshead store was closed earlier this year.