McColl on expansion path

Retailer Martin McColl is to create 150 new convenience stores over the next two years after completing a debt refinancing worth more than £100m.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Mar 2013, 08:52 BST

The expansion will give the group some 800 convenience stores as it faces up to increased competition from supermarket heavyweights in the smaller store sector.

Convenience stores already make up more than half of Martin McColl’s 1,260 stores, making it the third-largest owner of such outlets in the country. The group, founded by Scottish footballer Robert Smyth McColl in 1901, also has 500 newsagents.

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It has doubled the number of its convenience stores in the last seven years and plans to drive its latest expansion by snapping up independent stores and converting its own existing newsagents.

Finance director Jonathan Miller said growth plans were made possible after the group defied difficult economic conditions to refinance its debt pile with £126.5m in new loans.