Marks and Spencer is spearheading its national recovery with a £1m facelift for its Chelmsford store - one of the busiest in the county.

And the town is to get a 40-seater coffee shop as part of the new-look store, scheduled to be ready by the August bank holiday.

Over the coming two months customers will see the High Street shop transformed with a re-fit to its food hall with all new freezers and chillers, complete redecoration in 'white box' style and a major new lighting scheme.

Marks regional manager Peter Larkin says the store - which is second busiest of 11 Essex stores and has a top ranking in the national 300-strong chain - will be subject to some customer disruption but he hopes to keep this to a minimum.

"We are doing the work now so that the customers will have a brilliant well-lit store ready for Christmas - we are hoping all work will be over by October."

For more on this story see www.business-in-essex.co.uk

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