A supermarket chain is buying out McColl's Retail Group - following the announcement that the convenience store chain is on the brink of collapse.

McColl's made an announcement on Thursday (May 5) that it was about to go into administration - putting 16,000 jobs at risk.

The convenience store, founded in 1901 as a single shop, is approximately just under £170 million in debt. McColl's employs around 16,000 staff, with roughly 6,000 full-time.

Over the weekend, the EG Group (Asda) were the favourite to clinch McColl's.

Morrisons and the billionaire Issa brothers of the EG Group filed final offers for the business chain on Sunday (May 8).

Yesterday (May 9), Morrisons beat Asda to the purchase of the convenience store chain.

Morrisons is willing to repay McColl's banks around £170m, as well as agreeing to take on responsibility for the company's pension scheme with over 2,000 members.

These are the two key reasons which made Morrisons successful in its bid.

McColl's currently runs 1,100 stores across England Scotland and Wales, including a branch in Shepton Mallet.

Morrisons is already a key wholesale supplier for McColl's.

Over recent years, 200 McColl's stores have converted to Morrison's Daily.

There is a target from Morrisons to make this 450 stores by November 2022. 

The convenience store sector faired relatively well as a whole during the pandemic.

People shopped closer to home and ordered shopping online - McColl's ran into difficulties during this period as it attempted to update the range of food it sold.

This process was made harder by Covid-related supply chain problems.