HIGH street giant Marks & Spencer is to try out a new-look store in York in an attempt to win back customers.

The city's Pavement M & S is one of about 20 pioneering stores chosen to receive a new image first tried out in London, Surrey and Leicester.

The new-look branch will include designer lines from the exclusive M & S Autograph range and a new line of children's and baby clothes.

Pushchairs, breast pumps and other baby equipment will also be sold in the revamped store - and, most importantly from the point of view of many shoppers, the store will have customer toilets.

From the end of this month, customers will be able to watch work begin on developments they requested during a consultation by a market research company.

The changes, due to take between ten and 12 weeks, will be on view through half-partitions.

It is now four years since the Pavement store received its £16.5 million makeover during which the central movement system of escalators was introduced and the food hall was moved from Coppergate to the ground floor of the Pavement store. Soon afterwards the vacant Coppergate store was turned into the Marks & Spencer Home store at a cost of £2.5 million.

Regional manager Rick Buckland said: "York has always been a bit of a pioneer.

"In 1984, when the Coppergate Centre opened, Marks & Spencer was opened as an experimental children's wear shop which was the first time that had ever been done in the country.

"York has frequently been used as a place where Marks & Spencer experiments because York customers are quick to react clearly and communicate what they want."

The announcement came on the day the chain announced a one per cent rise in sales for the first four months of this financial year, compared with a seven per cent drop over the same period last year.

Mr Buckland assured customers that disruption wwould be kept to a minimum.

He said: "It will probably take ten to 12 weeks and be finished by the half-term holiday in October.

"The home section will be affected but it will be less obvious than other areas. All other areas of the shop will have makeovers to make them easier to shop in.

"I'm delighted that our customers in York will be among the first in the country to benefit from our new approach.

"Fashion will be displayed in a way that makes it easier for customers to see what they want to buy. We're aiming to give York shoppers a new shopping experience and we think they'll like it."