How Brexit Impacted Marks & Spencer's Food Supply Chain
BREXIT severely impacted Marks & Spencer’s food supply chain, resulting in significant financial losses, product cuts, and store closures across multiple countries throughout Europe.
Continue reading to find out the full story and key lessons from the situation.
Key Nuggets:
- Brexit broke the M&S just-in-time food model overnight
- Customs delays and regulatory checks ruined perishable goods
- French store closures and 800 product cuts in Ireland followed
- Lessons on local sourcing, regulatory alignment, and resilient design are now vital
- African supply chains should prepare for regional frictions with more flexible, decentralized logistics
Just before BREXIT became official, the government and news pundits repeatedly stated that they had a trade deal, so there wouldn’t be friction. Marks & Spencer believed the same until BREXIT actually happened.
Overnight, customs checks and sanitary rules kicked in and disrupted a process that was otherwise seamless. Suddenly, M&S’s food supply chain couldn’t deliver a sandwich from Northampton to Paris without piles of paperwork, health certificates, and missed expiry dates.
Nevertheless, the impact of BREXIT on Marks & Spencer’s food supply chain isn’t a cautionary tale about failed deliveries, wasted goods, and shuttered stores. It is a case study that highlights the impact of making assumptions without backing them up with hard numbers.
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How Brexit Broke Marks & Spencer’s Food Supply Chain Model
Just-in-time became just-too-late.
Before BREXIT, M&S used a high-frequency supply model that shipped fresh meals and sandwiches daily from the UK to stores in France and Ireland. This was possible because trucks could cross the Channel without delay or red tape.
Moving across countries felt like moving between cities.
The cold chain was stable, product shelf life was safe, and the range of offerings was full. Then came January 1st, 2021, and everything went haywire.
The UK’s departure from the EU customs union and single market effectively turned the Channel Tunnel into a hard border. Every shipment from M&S suddenly required:
- Compliance with rules of origin and SPS regulations
- Export health certificates for every product category
- Customs declarations with ingredient-level detail
- Pre-notifications for perishable items
- Physical inspections at ports
And the scrutiny was intense. A single customs mistake, such as an incorrect ink color on a form, can result in rejected loads. Sandwiches sat too long in queues, and meals expired en route. In Paris alone, three M&S stores had half-empty shelves in week one.
The stable cold chain was fractured.
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The Fallout: Store Closures, Empty Shelves, and £16 Million in Losses
According to M&S Chairman Archie Norma, “Only two-thirds of sandwiches were making it to France on time.” The rest were binned before reaching the shelf. One logistics disruption quickly turned into a strategic retreat.
M&S shut all 11 French franchise food stores (operated with partner SFH) by year-end 2021.
In a joint statement, M&S and its partner explained that the “lengthy and complex export processes now in place” since Brexit had “significantly constricted the supply of fresh and chilled product from the UK into Europe.”
Under the current market conditions, the company couldn’t serve fresh and chilled products to customers while sticking to the high standards they expect.
Marks & Spencer’s food supply chain operations in Ireland suffered the same thing. Nearly 20% of its range, or 800 products, were pulled from stores. Customers lost access to fresh chicken, Parmesan cheese, specialty burgers, orchids, and other chilled or mixed-origin items.
The financial toll was devastating:
- Wasted shipments due to spoilage
- £16 million in added supply chain costs
- Rerouting and reconfiguring logistics processes under pressure
Even Northern Ireland, under a different Brexit protocol, saw availability gaps. Regulatory divergence now ruled every route.
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How Marks & Spencer’s Food Supply Chain Adapted Under Pressure
M&S was forced to take decisive action to stem the losses. The company quickly adapted by making a sharp pivot in three directions:
A. Market Exit
France’s high-street food stores were closed. M&S retained only a few travel hub outlets with a reduced chilled range.
B. Range Simplification
In Prague, fresh food was removed completely. Frozen and ambient products doubled in range. Ireland saw mass delistings.
C. Local Sourcing and Operational Workarounds
M&S began increasing Irish and EU sourcing, which helped avoid many SPS delays. The company also streamlined documentation, trained staff in compliance, and explored new distribution capacity closer to EU markets.
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Lessons Every Supply Chain Leader Should Take Seriously
The current trade landscape is reminiscent of the market M&S’s team woke up to in January 2021. And the lessons from Marks & Spencer’s food supply chain reaction provide a template that food and beverage supply chains can adopt.
1. A Trade Deal Is Not Frictionless Trade
The EU-UK deal removed tariffs, but it did not remove the bureaucracy, which in some cases can be just as bad, if not worse. Rules of origin, SPS compliance, and customs still applied. M&S found out the hard way that zero tariffs don’t necessarily mean zero barriers.
Here is the lesson: Always test trade rules under live operational conditions, not just legal frameworks.
2. Regulatory Divergence Can Break the Chain
The UK and EU have almost identical food standards. Nevertheless, M&S had to declare every meat, dairy, and egg type, including species names. And they had to do it for every shipment. That’s the cost of not having a veterinary agreement.
Here is the lesson: Regulatory alignment matters more than many think, especially in food.
3. Perishables Cannot Absorb Delays
You cannot run a shelf-life product through a system that is built for dry goods. A 48-hour delivery window across Europe suddenly became too risky and, in many cases, impossible. As a result, spoilage increased, availability decreased, and revenue declined.
Here is the lesson: Fragile goods need frictionless corridors—or local production.
4. Local Sourcing Is Not a Luxury, It’s Insurance
M&S was completely decimated in France because it was too dependent on suppliers from the United Kingdom. But the company was able to survive in Ireland because of local substitutes.
Here is the lesson: When borders harden, homegrown products shine.
5. Plan for Political Risk, Not Just Commercial Demand
M&S’s logistics ran lean, precise, and efficient—until politics changed the rules. Brexit was not a supply shock. It was a policy one.
Here is the lesson: Build geopolitical risk into supply network design. Don’t wait for disruption, model it.
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Obinabo Tochukwu Tabansi is a supply chain digital writer (Content writer & Ghostwriter) helping professionals and business owners across Africa learn from real-world supply chain wins and setbacks and apply proven strategies to their own operations. He also crafts social content for logistics and supply chain companies, turning their solutions and insights into engaging posts that drive visibility and trust.
