Lincolnshire to lose six McColl’s stores in Morrisons closure plans

Supermarket chain Morrisons will close 132 loss-making McColl’s convenience stores, six of which are in Greater Lincolnshire, just months after bailing the company out of administration.

Morrisons bought out McColl’s in May this year, paying off £170 million in debts as part of the takeover deal, but it has been unable to prevent pending store closures.

132 McColl’s shops will be closed after Morrisons said there was “no realistic prospect” of the business becoming profitable any time soon.

The closures are putting 1,300 jobs at risk across the country, and six of the 132 store shutdowns will be here in Greater Lincolnshire. They will be closed in an “orderly fashion” between now and the end of the year, Morrisons says.

The affected sites are:

• Louth Eastgate – LN11 9QE
• Louth North Somercotes – Ln11 7PL
• 5 Kennedy Way, Immingham – DN40 2AB
• Alford South Market Place – LN13 9EB
• Skegness Ingoldmells – PE25 1PG
• Skegness Trunch Lane – PE24 5TU

This means that the McColl’s stores in the immediate vicinity of Lincoln, including North Hykeham’s store at The Forum and the uni at Birchwood Shopping Centre, will remain open throughout.

There will, however, be an additional bitter blow for customers at the Immingham and North Somercotes McColl’s stores – as the Post Office counters inside these shops will also close.

286 of the 1,164 trading McColl’s stores operate as Morrisons Daily, and soon all will fall under that blanket as part of a bid by the supermarket chain to save the firm from the financial abyss.

The transition from McColl’s to Morrisons Daily is expected to take up to three years, with a view towards reaching over 1,000 stores with the Morrisons Daily name by the end of 2024.

Joseph Sutton, Morrisons Convenience, Online and Wholesale Director, said: “We have a great deal of work to do but there’s no question that McColl’s is a business with strong potential.

“I’m confident that the combination of McColl’s conveniently located stores and great colleagues together with Morrisons scale, brand, systems and fresh food expertise will lead to a transformation of the business.

“We very much regret the proposed closure of 132 loss-making stores but it is, very sadly, an important step towards the regeneration of the business.

“I am confident that McColl’s can, in the Morrisons family, once again become a growing, thriving and vibrant convenience business serving local communities across the UK.

“We are pleased to be able to offer every colleague alternative employment within the Morrisons group, but we fully recognise that this might not be a practical solution for all colleagues.”

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