Rival bidders Morrisons and the EG Group are in a last gasp race to buy the convenience chain McColl's. Morrisons' final last-minute offer came on Sunday. Administrators are set to be appointed for the business which has 1,100 stores. EG Group has been poised to buy McColl's but Morrisons tabled its 11th-hour improved offer on Sunday. Britain's fourth biggest supermarket chain is offering to take on all the stores and staff. Morrisons had already agreed to take on McColl's debts, but it is now understood to be willing to pay McColl's lenders in full, straightaway, matching a similar pledge thought to have been made by EG Group. Morrisons is McColl's key wholesale supplier. It has also formed a tie-up with the chain to convert hundreds of McColl's shops to Morrisons Daily convenience stores. There are more than 200 now and these have been performing well. McColl's employs around 16,000 staff across the chain but only around 2,000 are in the two defined benefit pension schemes that are at risk. The convenience store sector as a whole has done relatively well during the pandemic, as people shopped closer to home. However, McColl's has run into difficulties as it attempted to update the range of food it sold, a process made harder by Covid-related supply chain problems.
