THESE won't be just any store closures, these will be Marks & Spencer store closures and if the axe falls on the one in Worcester it will sever a 109-year-link between the retail giant and the city.

M&S arrived in Worcester in 1907 and the recent news it is looking to close 30 outlets nationwide following falling sales and profits has sent shockwaves down the UK's high streets at the pending loss of such a famous name.

But the store had neither the name nor the location when it opened in the Faithful City in the early years of the 20th century.

The company's first presence in Worcester was at 57 Foregate Street, opposite the main post office – in more recent times the offices of auctioneers and valuers Arthur G Griffiths and later estate agents Griffiths and Charles – where a "Marks' Bazaar" opened in the same year the Suffragettes first marched in London.

Marks & Spencer, as it then became, moved to its present address in High Street in 1925 with a relatively modest store, before expanding in the decades following the Second World War.

Its reputation for quality was such that in the 1950s, the property's wooden floors were oiled by caretakers every Thursday afternoon during half day closing to maintain their pristine appearance.

In 1967 an enclosed bridge was built across The Shambles at the rear of the premises to a new goods reception depot off New Street and when M&S took over 19 stores of rival high street retailer Littlewoods in the late 1990s, it spent £19m in Worcester combining the two operations into one.

The company dates back to 1884 when Michael Marks, a Russian refugee, opened Marks' Penny Bazaar in Leeds with £5 he had been loaned by local businessman Isaac Jowitt Dewhirst.

Ten years later Marks went into partnership with Dewhirst's cashier Tom Spencer at a permanent stall in Leeds' covered market.

The pair then launched a series of Penny Bazaars across the North West of England, which sowed the seeds for the M&S empire.

In Worcester the company has always been particularly customer focussed.

In 1982, when the manager was Ken Lillwall, it won a special award for its customer service, beating the rest of the 253 M&S stores across the country.

Then in 1994 it built a special lift at its Shambles entrance, which allowed customers with pushchairs or prams or carrying bulky goods or with some degree of disability, to ride up or down at the press of a button. It was the first facility of its kind at any M&S outlet in the UK.

If the company decides to pull its Worcester operation, the city will be losing much more than just a retail name.