McColl’s Retail Group has achieved annual revenues of more than £1bn in the year ending 26 November 2017, but recent like-for-likes were dented by the collapse of wholesaler Palmer & Harvey.

Like-for-like sales increased by 0.1% in the 12-month period, with similar growth in McColl’s convenience stores. Grocery and alcohol sales increased by 40% and now represent 32% of McColl’s total sales.

However, total like-for-like sales for the 11-week period ending 11 February fell by 2.2%, driven down by sales in stores formerly supplied by wholesaler Palmer & Harvey, where like for likes were down 3.6%.

Total revenue for the full year increased by 19.1% to £1.13bn, following McColl’s successful integration of 298 stores from the Co-operative Group in 2017. Company profits before tax also increased to £18.4m.

McColl’s chief executive Jonathan Miller said: “We have delivered a strong financial performance with a step-up in sales and profitability propelled by our acquisition of 298 convenience stores, and by surpassing £1bn in annual revenues, we have demonstrated that this is now a business of real scale.

“Continuing this momentum, this year we will significantly enhance our customer offer as we transition supply in over 1,300 stores to Morrisons and exclusively launch hundreds of new Safeway branded products at McColl’s. We will also further invest and improve the quality of our estate by extending our successful convenience store refresh programme to 100 additional stores this year.”

Last month, McColl’s launched the new Morrisons-supplied Safeway range of around 400 products to 102 stores as part of a phased rollout.

As well as refurbishing 100 of its convenience stores, the group is also planning to acquire 20 new stores in the year ahead.