Mccoll's Regulatory News (MCLS)

18 June 2014

McColl's opens its 750th convenience store

McColl's Retail Group plc, the neighbourhood retailer operating in the UK convenience and newsagent sectors, today celebrates the opening of its 750th convenience store. This new opening marks a significant milestone for McColl's as it delivers on its strategy to increase its number of convenience stores to approximately 1,000 by the end of 2016. This follows the successful listing of McColl's Retail Group plc on the London Stock Exchange in February this year.

The 750th store sits in the heart of New Hedges village, Pembrokeshire, and attracts customers from a wide catchment area including a significant summer holiday trade. The 2,500 sq ft store was acquired from an independent operator and has been refitted to the McColls format. The store is supplied by NISA, with an extensive 'Heritage' range, and also stocks a wide variety of locally sourced produce including fresh meat, cheese, fruit and vegetables with bread and savouries baked freshly in store each day. It operates a comprehensive range of services including a Post Office. It has a large dedicated car park and trades from 6.00am to 10.00pm 7 days a week.

In recent years, McColl's Retail Group has focused on enhancing and expanding the convenience side of its business through the conversion of existing Newsagents into Food and Wine stores, the conversion of its Standard Convenience stores into Premium Convenience stores, selective acquisitions of convenience stores and better utilisation of store space, whilst remaining focused on the neighbourhood retail market. In addition to its 750 Convenience Stores, the group also operates 540 Newsagents across the UK. The Group remains on track to achieve its target of approximately 1,350 stores, consisting of approximately 1,000 Convenience stores and 350 Newsagents, by the end of 2016, through a combination of targeted conversions and acquisitions.

Commenting on the store opening, James Lancaster, Chairman and CEO of McColl's Retail Group, said:

"This is an exciting milestone for the Group as we continue to expand our UK convenience store footprint and build on the success of our IPO earlier this year. We are continuing to respond to the needs of our customers by improving and extending the range of products and services we offer and our store expansion and conversion plan remains on track. We are delighted to have opened in New Hedges village and look forward to providing an excellent service to our customers there."

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Please visit http://www.mccolls.co.uk/ or for further information, please contact:

James Lancaster McColl's Retail Group 01277 372 916

Martyn Aguss

Alison Kay Brunswick 020 7404 5959

Cerith Evans

About McColl's Retail Group

McColl's Retail Group runs the UK's largest chain of managed convenience and newsagent stores. It has 750 McColl's branded UK convenience stores and 540 newsagents and variety stores branded Martin's except in Scotland where it operates under its heritage brand, RS McColl. It is the leader in the independent managed sector, having doubled the number of its convenience stores over the last seven years. Sales in 2013 were £869m, having grown by almost £200m in the last seven years.