Marks & Spencer is offering an alternative to often derided hospital food with the announcement of plans to open 20 stores in UK hospitals.

The Simply Food stores will open in the next five years with the aim of offering patients, staff and visotrs a premium option.

Chairman Sir Stuart Rose said M&S wants to link up with the NHS across the UK, following a trial scheme which has been running in London for eight months.

Sales at the first M&S store at St George's Hospital, Tooting, are said to have exceeded expectations.

The next two stores will open at London's St Thomas's and the Royal Berkshire in Reading according to Tony Keating, chief executive of M&S’s franchise partner SSP UK.

Keating told the Daily Mail: “We are now looking at the hospital market closely because it is an area we expect to grow strongly in. I think the stores will be successful because they will appeal to busy staff who work shifts and want good-quality food at reasonable prices.

“Also, patients and visitors can buy food to take back to the wards… In terms of the hospital market, we have the scope to really grow.”

freshinfo understands there may be some stipulations over the continuity and quantity of fresh produce in the outlets.

M&S currently has 33 rail station stores and is nearing the end of its rail roll-out, which has also seen success in the airport and motorway services market, in which it now has 171 shops.

The hospital market is unlikely to be as profitable as its rail station and airport terminal franchises, according to Keating, with just three million shoppers a year at the Tooting store - considerably fewer than in rail stations.

A M&S spokesman said: “We've had a fantastic feedback from patients and staff at St George's Hospital in Tooting where we have trialled the format.

“A number of NHS trusts have contacted us about opening an M&S at their locations and we now want to expand the format to other hospitals.”

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