McColl's

McColl's was a British convenience shop, newsagent and post office operator, founded in 1973. The chain also traded as RS McColl's in Scotland, and used the name Martin's for its newsagent-format shops.[1]

In May 2022, British supermarket chain Morrisons rescued McColl's from administration, with 132 stores set to close.[2] All of the remaining shopfronts were converted to the Morrisons Daily fascia by September 2024.[3]

As of September 2024, the defunct McColl's, RS McColl's, and Martin's trademarks are owned by Alliance Property Holdings Limited, a subsidiary company of Morrisons.[4] The former mccolls.co.uk website now re-directs to Morrisons Daily.[5]

History

Martin McColl

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.[8] In addition to RS McColl, TM Retail's former trading names included 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)[9] and McColl's.

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.[10]

In August 2013, the group changed its name from Martin McColl Retail Group to McColl's Retail Group.[11]

The company was floated on the stock market in January 2014.[12] 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 were since converted into Spar franchises.[13]

Covid-19 pandemic

In February 2020, McColl's announced its intentions to close down 330 stores over the next three or four years while it aimed to concentrate its consumer retail business operations.[14] McColl's changed 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.[15]

Morrisons takeover

After having Morrisons' Safeway brand[17] on around 400 product lines in over 1,300 stores since January 2018,[18][19][20] McColl's decided to take the wholesale agreement further by having 350 of their convenience stores rebranded from McColl’s to Morrisons Daily.[21][22] 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 were 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.

industry	Convenience store chain
founded	1973
founder	Martin McColl
defunct	September 2024
fate	All locations converted to Morrisons Daily
brands	RS McColl's, Martin's
owner	Morrisons

History

RS McColl

Martin McColl

Covid-19 pandemic

Morrisons takeover

Criticism

External links

References