James Lancaster, chairman and chief executive of McColl’s Retail Group speaks to Retail Week about his life working in retail
How have you capitalised on growth in the convenience food market?
We have an excellent convenience offering, which drove sales through a strong Christmas period. I’m very pleased with our performance given the tough trading environment.Convenience stores are becoming more popular and we’re pleased to take advantage of that trend. We opened our 700th store at the end of 2013 and are going to continue transforming our portfolio from newsagents into food and wine stores.
We are going to make significantly more acquisitions over the next three years as we target 1,500 shops. The major grocers are increasing their presence in the convenience sector.
How are you responding?
They all want to expand further into convenience. We are neighbourhood convenience stores - only 10% of our stores are on the high street where the multiples want to expand. We try to service a neighbourhood on an estate around half a mile from the shop. The Co-op shares a similar estate but we are happy to compete with it.
What plans do you have for your stores?
We are going to go into a stronger relationship with the Post Office within our shops, and I’m interested in expanding our relationship with Collect+. We will convert 90 stores from newsagents to convenience shops this year.
It has been reported you are exploring options for a sale or IPO, what are your plans?
We are always looking at our options going forward. We have not made any firm decisions on the route to take.
What are your expectations for the economic climate in 2014?
We are running our business on the basis that the economy will remain pretty much the same. I expect it to remain a tough environment from now until the General Election.
No comments yet