Jobs at risk as bid fails to save retailer

CONVENIENCE chain McColl’s has collapsed into administration, putting hundreds of jobs in Tayside and Fife at risk.

The retailer operates 25 shops across Dundee, Perth, Angus and Fife.

McColl’s held talks with its lenders yesterday in the hope they could extend loans.

Supermarket Morrisons, which is a major wholesale partner, also tabled a last-ditch effort to buy the business.

But the company said “the lenders made clear that they were not satisfied that such discussions would reach an outcome acceptable to them”.

The company will now appoint administrators from PwC in an effort to “preserve the future of the business and to protect the interests of employees”.

It hopes the administrators will help to “implement a sale of the business to a third-party purchaser as soon as possible”.

It is understood that Morrisons is still interested in a takeover, while Sky News has reported that forecourt giant EG Group is interested in a deal.

EG Group owners Zuber and Mohsin Issa are part of the consortium that bought Asda 18 months ago.

Earlier yesterday, Morrisons tabled a rescue deal which would also take on the business as a going concern, absorb its debts of more than £100 million and take responsibility for the firm’s pension scheme.

The two businesses are major partners, with McColl’s running hundreds of small shops under the Morrisons Daily brand.

Morrisons said its rescue proposal for McColl’s would have secured the future of the majority of its shops and workers.

A spokeswoman said: “For thousands of hard working people and pensioners, this is a very disappointing, damaging and unnecessary outcome.”

Share trading has been suspended.