Morrisons to close 132 McColl's stores putting jobs at risk

Morrisons says it plans to close 132 of its loss-making McColl's convenience stores, putting 1,300 jobs at risk.

It comes after the supermarket chain agreed to buy McColl's out of administration in May.

Workers who could be made redundant will be offered jobs elsewhere in the business, the grocer said.

Morrisons now plans to convert most of its remaining McColl's stores into Morrisons Daily shops as it tries to revive the chain's fortunes.

There are currently 1,164 McColl's stores trading, 286 of which operate under the Morrisons Daily brand.

Morrisons said all of the stores set to close were "loss-making" and had "no realistic prospect" of recovering soon.

The shops are distributed around England, Scotland and Wales.

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The majority will be closed "in an orderly fashion" over the rest of this year, it added.

The grocer said workers at risk of redundancy "will be offered alternative employment at a nearby McColl's store, Morrisons store, logistics operation or food-making centre".

Out of the stores that will close, 55 have a Post Office counter.

Morrisons said it would will delay the closure of these stores until next year to let them serve local communities during Christmas "and to allow the Post Office additional time to make alternative arrangements".

Last week competition regulators cleared Morrisons to buy McColl's.

The supermarket chain had already said it would sell 28 McColl's stores to overcome competition concerns.

McColl's is a business "of significant scale", Morrisons added, with an annual turnover of £1.2bn. It accounts for about 0.8% of the UK grocery market, it added.

It said no further store closures were currently being considered but it remains in talks with "a number of landlords of challenged stores".

Morrisons' chief executive David Potts said after the green light from the competition watchdog, the retailer was "now able to begin the urgent journey to transform McColl's into a viable, well-invested and growing operation".

Mr Potts added that following the store conversions, there would be more than 1,000 Morrisons Daily stores trading within two years.

Joseph Sutton, the director of Morrisons wholesale, said: "We very much regret the proposed closure of 132 loss-making stores but it is, very sadly, an important step towards the regeneration of the business."