McColl’s Retail Group has announced it has achieved its target of operating 1,000 convenience stores by the end of the year, after acquiring 58 new stores in the fourth quarter to take its total convenience store count to 1,001. 

Group revenue grew by 1.7% for the 13-week period and 1.9% for the year ending November 27. However, like-for-like sales declined 1.7% for the 13-week period ending November 27. Like-for-like sales in premium convenience and food and wine stores were down 1% while newsagents and standard convenience stores saw a 3.3% drop in the fourth quarter. The chain announced the acquisition of 298 sites from the Co-operative Group earlier this year, and these stores will be supplied by Nisa when they come on stream during 2017. Including newsagents, the combined McColl’s estate is made up of 1,374 stores.

Jonathan Miller, chief executive, said: “I am delighted to announce that with the recent opening of our new Erdington store, we have achieved our target of operating 1,000 convenience stores by the end of 2016. This is a significant milestone in our strategy to grow our neighbourhood presence and serve more McColl’s customers. 

“As we announced in July, we will accelerate our convenience store openings in 2017 with the transformational acquisition of 298 stores from the Co-op. Our integration planning is progressing well and we are on track to begin the conversion programme in January. We are working closely with the Competition and Markets Authority and expect them to announce their findings by 23 December.”

A total of 559 Post Offices are now in operation in McColl’s sites, 183 Amazon lockers are now installed and 18 new food to go units have also been integrated including 13 Subway outlets. LED lighting and contactless payment have now also been rolled out to all stores.