Industry | Convenience store chain |
---|---|
Founded | 1973 |
Founder | Martin McColl |
Fate | All locations currently undergoing a conversion programme to Morrisons Daily branding. |
Owner | Clayton, Dubilier & Rice |
Parent | Morrisons |
McColl's (also trading as RS McColl's (Scotland) and newsagent brand, Martin's) is a British convenience shop and newsagent operator, owned by the supermarket chain Morrisons [1] [2] McColl's also operates post offices in several stores. [3]
Since 2022, all McColl's, RS McColl's and Martin's locations have been undergoing a rebranding programme to the Morrisons Daily fascia. The programme is due to be completed by 2024 or 2025. [4] As of August 2024, most locations have been converted.
RS McColl, colloquially known as McColl's, was a Scottish newsagent company named after Robert Smyth McColl, who was a professional footballer. It was founded in 1901 by McColl and his brother Tom. [5] [6]
RS McColl became part of TM Retail – formally TM Group (The Mayfair Group) – in November 1998, when Forbuoys (a subsidiary of TM Retail) acquired Martin Retail Group, creating Great Britain's largest chain of newsagents, and RS McColl's chain of newsagents. [7] In addition to RS McColl, TM Retail's former trading names include the following subsidiaries: Mayfair Services (cigarette vending), Vendepac (drinks vending), Forbuoys, Martin's, Dillons (purchased from One Stop Stores Ltd following the takeover by Tesco of parent company T&S Stores), [8] McColls and More.
In 2006, TM Retail was renamed Martin McColl Limited after a management buyout, with the various stores rebranded as Martin's (for the news and variety stores) or McColl's (for the convenience stores) and the stores in Scotland retaining the RS McColl name. [9]
From 2009 to 2010, Martin McColl Limited replaced their existing EPOS system with a new multi-screen touch screen system.[ citation needed ] It was hoped this would speed up the transaction process by incorporating Credit/Debit card systems within the EPOS.[ citation needed ] The multi-screen system allows advertising POS to be electronically displayed to customers during the time that they are at the till. By 2011, an expansion for the new system had been developed, with the addition of built-in PayPoint terminals known as PPOD.[ citation needed ]
During 2012 to 2013, a barcode system was implemented to scan lottery tickets through the till making transactions more accurate and reducing the chances of human error.[ citation needed ] Martin McColl began another rebrand making the stores more appealing to customers and changed their POS format to go with the new brand.[ citation needed ]
In March 2013, Martin McColl's implemented a company-wide change in the colouring of SEL's and POS, opting for 'ivory' SEL strips and a mixture of block-coloured red and white POS material.[ citation needed ]
In August 2013, the group changed its name from Martin McColl Retail Group to McColls Retail Group. [10]
The company was floated on the stock market in January 2014. [11] In July 2016, wholly owned subsidiary, Martin McColl Ltd, announced it would acquire 298 shops from The Co-operative Group (subject to Competition & Markets Authority approval) for £117 million, this meant they entered Northern Ireland for the first time, but it was short lived as all of the stores are now Spar franchises. [12]
In February 2020, McColl's announced its intentions to close down 330 stores over the next three or four years while it aims to concentrate its consumer retail business operations. [13] McColl's is to change its focus from newsagents to larger grocery stores after writing down the valuation of its company has brought the chain to a loss, with its dividend suspended as well. [14]
In 2022, McColl's was placed in voluntary administration and purchased by Morrisons. [15]
After having Morrisons' Safeway brand [16] on around 400 product lines in over 1,300 stores since January 2018, [17] [18] [19] McColl's decided to take the wholesale agreement further by having 350 of their convenience stores rebranded from McColl’s to Morrisons Daily. [20] [21] The first rebranded stores were operating at the start of 2021, with the 100th rebranded store opening in Ellesmere Port in October 2021. A total of 185 stores had been converted to Morrisons Daily by the end of 2021. McColl's hoped to have 350 shops trading under the new format by the end of 2022. [22]
In 2021, McColl's raised £30m to invest in the expansion of its Morrisons Daily convenience stores. The income of the convenience stores had been reduced by the coronavirus pandemic. [23] McColl's was reported to have £170m of debt by BBC News , while The Guardian reported a lower figure of £100m of debt. [24] [25]
On 6 May 2022, McColl's was reported to be on the verge of financial collapse. The retailer said it was "increasingly likely" it would fall into administration unless a rescue deal were successful. [23] The company reported that it would "be placed into administration with the objective of achieving a sale of the group to a third-party purchaser and securing the interests of creditors and employees". [23] Earlier in the week, the listed company warned that its shares would be suspended as it was not able to meet the deadline for filing its annual results. [23]
On 6 May 2022, it was announced that the company would enter voluntary administration after talks with Morrisons about a rescue deal failed. PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed as administrator. [26] At the time of the announcement, the McColl's website listed a total of 1149 stores, with 755 branded McColl's, 270 branded Morrisons Daily, 116 branded Martin's and eight branded RS McColl. [27] On 9 May, Morrisons agreed terms with the administrator to acquire McColl's in a pre-packaged insolvency arrangement. [15]
On 30 May 2022, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it was launching an investigation into Morrison's acquisition of McColl's due to competition concerns, ordering Morrison's to run McColl's as a separate company while the investigation is being carried out. [28] [29]
On 13 July 2022, the CMA announced it had launched a formal investigation into Morrison's acquisition of McColl's. [30] On 15 July 2022, Morrison's announced it had agreed to rescue McColl's pension scheme following the acquisition. [31]
On 9 September 2022, the CMA announced it had largely cleared Morrison's acquisition of McColl's, raising concerns in 35 local areas where both brands would face reduced competition if the takeover went ahead as planned. Morrisons was then given five days to offer proposals to the CMA to address the concerns identified. [32] On 23 September 2022, Morrisons said it was offering to divest the overlapping convenience stores to ease the CMA's concerns, which the CMA said it would accept. [28] [33]
On 10 October 2022, Morrisons announced it planned to sell 28 McColl's stores (26 stores in England, 1 store in Scotland and 1 store in Wales) to a purchaser or purchasers approved by the CMA due to competition concerns. The CMA said it was consulting on the proposals for selling the stores. [34] [35]
On 27 October 2022, the CMA announced it would not be escalating its investigation and had cleared Morrisons' acquisition of McColl's, accepting Morrisons' plan to sell 28 McColl's stores. [36] [37]
On 1 November 2022, Morrisons announced it would close 132 loss-making McColl's stores (putting 1,300 jobs at risk) over the remainder of the year, and convert the remaining McColl's stores into Morrisons Daily stores within the next two to three years, bringing the number of Morrisons Daily stores to more than 1,000. Morrison's convenience, online and wholesale director Joseph Sutton will take charge of McColl's from McColl's interim CEO Karen Bird and CFO Giles David. Affected employees will be offered jobs in other local Morrisons stores or other parts of the Morrisons business. [38] [39]
In November 2014, after a number of robberies in Wirral, including one in which a manager was knocked out, McColl's was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £78,000 prosecution costs for failing to protect its staff. [40]
In August 2021, McColl's was "named and shamed" by the UK government for not paying workers the minimum wage. [41]
Safeway Limited is a British groceries brand, and former chain of supermarkets and convenience shops. The British Safeway was founded in 1962 by the American Safeway Inc., before being sold to Argyll Foods in 1987. It was later listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was purchased by Morrisons in March 2004. Most of its 479 shops were rebranded as Morrisons, with others being sold. Safeway-branded shops disappeared from the United Kingdom on 24 November 2005.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, and one in Gibraltar. The company is headquartered in Bradford, England.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or simply Couche-Tard, is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores. The company has 14,302 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Japan, China, and Indonesia. The company operates its corporate stores mainly under the Couche-Tard, Circle K, and On the Run brands but also under the affiliated brands Mac's Convenience Stores, go!, 7-jours, Dairy/Daisy Mart, Becker's and Winks.
Sobeys Inc. is a national supermarket chain in Canada with over 1,500 stores operating under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than C$25.1 billion in the fiscal 2019 operating year. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian business conglomerate.
Poundstretcher Limited is a British variety store chain, founded in 1981 by Paul Appell and Stephen Fearnley. The retailer is currently based in Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire, and since April 2024 has been a subsidiary of the Fortress Investment Group.
Somerfield (;) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The business started life in the 19th century as grocers J. H. Mills, and after a series of buyouts and mergers, the company became known as Gateway. A major rebranding to the created Somerfield brand started in 1990, and in 1998 the company purchased the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK's fifth-largest food retailer. The Somerfield name was replaced by the Co-operative brand in a rolling programme of store conversions ending in summer 2011.
Intu Properties plc was a British real estate investment trust (REIT), largely focused on shopping centre management and development. Originally named Transatlantic Insurance Holdings plc and later Liberty International plc, it changed its name in May 2010 to Capital Shopping Centres Group plc after demerging its Capital & Counties Properties business unit to form an independent business. The company adopted the Intu name on 18 February 2013, and this was followed by the rebranding of most of its shopping centres under the Intu title from May 2013.
Woolworths Supermarkets is an Australian chain of supermarkets and grocery stores owned by Woolworths Group. Founded in 1924, Woolworths is currently Australia's largest supermarket chain with a market share of 33% as of 2019.
Poundland is a British variety store chain founded in 1990. It once sold most items at the single price of £1, including clearance items and proprietary brands. The first pilot store opened in December 1990 following numerous rejections by landlords who had reservations about allowing a single-price store to operate, fearing it could adversely affect the local competition. An estimated 7 million customers shopped in Poundland every week in 2016, many being female shoppers in the C1, C2, D and E categories. Following a drop in share price of over 50%, Poundland was acquired in August 2016 by Steinhoff International for £610 million.
Safeway Stores (Ireland) was a supermarket chain that operated in Northern Ireland between 1996 and 2005. 12 of the 13 stores were acquired by Asda, itself owned by Walmart; whilst the remaining store was sold to Mr John Miskelly and Mrs Helen Miskelly. Despite its name, it did not operate any interests in the Republic of Ireland.
SandpiperCI is a retail and food and beverage operator based in the Channel Islands. It mostly operates franchises of British chain stores, such as Marks & Spencer, Iceland, Morrisons, Costa Coffee, Burger King and Matalan, in British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories. It also operates own-brand Checkers stores in Jersey and Guernsey and an Apple retailer called iQ.
T. M. Lewin Shirtmaker, commonly known as TM Lewin, is a British online menswear retailer. It was started in 1898 by Thomas Mayes Lewin who opened his first shop on London's Panton Street and later moved to Jermyn Street, renowned as a base for formal shirts. TM Lewin started out making shirts but later started to sell suits, outerwear, knitwear, jackets, chinos, ties and accessories for men.
Beer, Wine and Spirits (BWS) is an Australian retail chain of liquor stores owned by Endeavour Group.
Hilco Capital is a British financial investment and restructuring advisory company, operating in the UK, Western Europe, Canada and Australia.
Presto Foodmarkets was a chain of supermarkets and convenience stores in Great Britain, which first appeared in the early 1960s. While the fate of most of the chain's stores was conversion to Safeway, the final stores still trading as Presto were either closed or sold in 1998.
Jack's was a British discount supermarket chain based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, owned by Tesco.