RETAIL giant Marks & Spencer is to shut one of its two Huddersfield town centre stores.

The firm will close its Piazza branch later this year.

But the company has pledged to completely remodel its store in New Street, redeploying all the staff.

The third shop, Marks & Spencer’s Simply Food outlet at Waterloo, is unaffected by the plans.

Marks & Spencer has had its premises in New Street since 1934 and currently uses the premises to sell womenswear and food.

The Piazza store sells menswear and lingerie.

The shutdown will be a blow to shopping in that part of Huddersfield, as other outlets around The Piazza are empty.

But the news that the New Street store is to be revamped will be seen as a boost for shopping in the main pedestrianised area of the town centre.

A spokesman for the company said: “Marks & Spencer has today announced plans to commence a complete remodel of its New Street store in Huddersfield, to be completed by late autumn 2011.

“As part of the modernisation plans, M&S will close its Piazza Shopping Centre store later this year and bring all the departments under one roof at the redesigned New Street store.

“The store improvements, which are set to commence this summer, will see a complete overhaul of the store layout to make better use of space and accommodate the new menswear, lingerie and beauty departments.

“The changes will provide customers with an even better shopping experience following the introduction of new fitting rooms and a refreshed look with new flooring, shelving, signage and equipment.

“The M&S store in the Piazza Shopping Centre will continue to trade until the refreshed New Street store is completed.

“Throughout the store changes, customer disruption will be kept to a minimum and both stores will continue to trade as normal.

“All 17 staff members from the Piazza Shopping Centre store will be relocated to the remodelled New Street store”.

Matthew Corker, Marks & Spencer Huddersfield’s New Street store manager, said: “We are thrilled to be bringing an updated store to Huddersfield and can’t wait for our shoppers to benefit from having all our departments under one roof”.

Marks & Spencer arrived in Huddersfield in 1894 and moved to its New Street premises in 1934.

The retailer launched a 7,200 sq ft Simply Food store at the Gallagher Centre, Waterloo, in February 2009.

THE decision to shut one of Huddersfield’s Marks & Spencer stores comes in the week boss Marc Bolland (left) unveiled plans to redesign stores.

Customers complained the outlets were “difficult to shop” in.

Chief executive Mr Bolland, who joined the firm a year ago, said the new formats will sell products selected in line with local criteria such as “affluence and age”.

Several pilot shops will be introduced in October, with a new layout complete with different signage, packaging and labelling in an attempt to improve navigation for customers.

The former Morrisons boss also announced plans to step up expansion in so-called emerging markets such as India and China.

M&S runs 703 stores in the UK and 361 overseas and has just posted a 13% increase in underlying pre-tax profits to £714m in the year to April 2.