High Street chain collapse sweepstake

thegeek
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Readers of this thread might be interested in the history of RS McColl, who it turns out was quite famous before he got into retailing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland- ... 347914.amp
cwathen
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My local McColl's now has a sign outside advising that PayPoint services are 'temporarily offline'. I suspected this was due to the potential administration, this was confirmed when inside all National Lottery products have been pulled. Lotto tickets can't be bought and all scratchcard stock has been removed from the display.

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Charlie Wells
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Looks like there's been a bit of a battle between EG Group (Asda's owners) and Morrisons to buy McColl's from the administrators. If successful I wonder if the remainder of the stores will then rebrand to use the 'Morrisons Daily' name.
Ref: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61370179
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WillPS
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Charlie Wells wrote: Mon 09 May, 2022 10.22 Looks like there's been a bit of a battle between EG Group (Asda's owners) and Morrisons to buy McColl's from the administrators. If successful I wonder if the remainder of the stores will then rebrand to use the 'Morrisons Daily' name.
Ref: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61370179
EG Group do not own Asda.

The Guardian are now reporting that Morrisons has come out ahead and will acquire the chain.

I suspect they will continue what McColls were doing and then seek franchise partners for the stores as going concerns, with long tie ins.

Possibly we will see a number of newsagent sized ones closing very soon.
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cwathen
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I suspect they will continue what McColls were doing and then seek franchise partners for the stores as going concerns, with long tie ins.
What Morrisons ought to do during the period of time where they own the whole estate, is sort out the Morrisons Daily format. Right now it's essentially just a symbol brand applied to McColl's stores with no consistency as to what that actually means vs a normal McColl's-fascied store.

The way forward should be to actually work out what a Morrisons Daily store is, in terms of size, ranging and shop fit (aiming for something much closer to a Tesco Express/Sainsbury's Local) and then roll that out to stores that can accommodate it. Also make a decision on where Safeway branded products fit into all this (if indeed they fit at all).

Then if they want to franchise some or all the Morrison's Daily estate out there will be clear standards both as the existing stores are offloaded and when identifying any opportunities for expansion. Then having kept the Morrison's Daily estate as either corporate or full franchise operations, the McColl's brand remains on smaller units and also becomes available as a symbol brand for independents using Morrisons as their wholesaler (and then getting Safeway branded products), with a view that Morrisons would gradually offload the remaining McColl's stores (which could stay McColl's stores if the new owners use Morrisons for supply) and focus on building the Morrisons Daily store estate up. Given the amount of variation between the existing McColl's stores, I don't think it would make that much noticeable difference to go down that route. Existing Store Managers/Area Managers of smaller shops could be given the opportunity to buy out their store(s) with preferential terms to use Morrisons as their supplier as the preferred option for store disposals.
Martin Phillp
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Lloyds Pharmacy may be selling stores. My guess are the ones close to Sainsbury's superstores will close.

https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD ... =200702073
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WillPS
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Martin Phillp wrote: Tue 10 May, 2022 16.25 Lloyds Pharmacy may be selling stores. My guess are the ones close to Sainsbury's superstores will close.

https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/CD ... =200702073
Not so sure. A successful pharmacy will have a lot of business associated with a specific branch; the recurring stuff (particularly care homes and delivery) can be moved under some circumstances but then that rather undermines the viability of the branch as a going concern.

I suspect this will be mostly driven by store profitability and/or opportunity for profit growth. The JS locations are very limited on the latter as they effectively have nothing but a single counter to work with; no opportunity to move in to cosmetics or anything like that (for example).

Worth noting that some Lloyds Pharmacy locations in JS were closed fairly swiftly; Ripley is one such example.
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cwathen
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A number of local live sites now reporting that as a result of the Morrisons prepack deal, McColl's have lost their alcohol licences and have had to suspend alcohol sales. Apparently Morrisons are aware of the issue and working to fix it

If true (seems a bit odd, I've seen many shops change hands without any break in licenseable trading) that will be a bit of a blow considering how many McColl's stores are heavily patronised by people out on ill advised late night cheeky booze purchases.
all new Phil
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cwathen wrote: Wed 11 May, 2022 13.50 A number of local live sites now reporting that as a result of the Morrisons prepack deal, McColl's have lost their alcohol licences and have had to suspend alcohol sales. Apparently Morrisons are aware of the issue and working to fix it

If true (seems a bit odd, I've seen many shops change hands without any break in licenseable trading) that will be a bit of a blow considering how many McColl's stores are heavily patronised by people out on ill advised late night cheeky booze purchases.
That doesn’t sound right. Licensing is done locally and so it’s unlikely that multiple councils have decided to revoke their licenses all at once. Could be it’s more a case of due diligence by Morrisons themselves as advised by their own lawyers, but I would assume that premises supervisors would still all be in place and so able to uphold the license at site level.
cwathen
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all new Phil wrote: Wed 11 May, 2022 19.14 That doesn’t sound right. Licensing is done locally and so it’s unlikely that multiple councils have decided to revoke their licenses all at once. Could be it’s more a case of due diligence by Morrisons themselves as advised by their own lawyers, but I would assume that premises supervisors would still all be in place and so able to uphold the license at site level.
I got it from Plymouth Live, which does say 'across the whole of the UK' and 'a spokesperson from Morrisons told Devon Live' that it 'is something impacting all stores and [they] are working at pace to apply for all the correct licences'.

I thought too it couldn't be right, any acquisition even if done with a pre pack should have it's ducks sufficiently in a row to ensure trading of core products (particularly when stock is not an issue) isn't affected. McColl's to me always looked very fragmented and disorganised, perhaps Morrisons due diligence couldn't easily identify the necessary licences were in place for all sites for legals to sign off. Perhaps they even found some where the licencing wasn't in order.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/p ... ol-7062119
all new Phil
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cwathen wrote: Wed 11 May, 2022 20.44 I got it from Plymouth Live, which does say 'across the whole of the UK' and 'a spokesperson from Morrisons told Devon Live' that it 'is something impacting all stores and [they] are working at pace to apply for all the correct licences'.

I thought too it couldn't be right, any acquisition even if done with a pre pack should have it's ducks sufficiently in a row to ensure trading of core products (particularly when stock is not an issue) isn't affected. McColl's to me always looked very fragmented and disorganised, perhaps Morrisons due diligence couldn't easily identify the necessary licences were in place for all sites for legals to sign off. Perhaps they even found some where the licencing wasn't in order.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/p ... ol-7062119
I think that’s the most likely explanation. From my own experience, I believe as soon as you submit a variation to a licence (change of DPS etc) then you can continue to trade as if the change has already been accepted. I’d guess a change in company registered address would have the same rule.
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