Convenience store group McColl’s has completed the transition to Morrisons supply to its 1,300 stores, although it has warned shareholders that it is continuing to experience a number of challenges.
The move to Morrisons’ supply came in the wake of the collapse of Palmer & Harvey last year.
In a trading update, McColl’s said: “The speed of this transition has created significant challenges and severely disrupted our plans for the launch of Safeway.”
Chief executive Jonathan Miller said: “2018 has been a very difficult year for the business, marked by unprecedented supply chain disruption and on-going challenges. I am, however, extremely grateful for the continued hard work of all my colleagues and the on-going support of Morrisons.
“Looking ahead, we expect competition in the grocery retail sector to remain intense and we face into significant cost pressures. Important to our future success will be continuing to develop our partnership with Morrisons, alongside our plans to enhance our neighbourhood convenience offer by improving the quality of our estate and our overall customer experience.”
The retailer said like-for-like sales for the year to 25th November were down 1.4 per cent, but total revenue for the year was up 8.3 per cent as a result of the acquisition of 298 smaller Co-op stores last year.
