McColl's Retail Group PLC has opened its 100th Morrisons Daily store, reaching the milestone two months ahead of schedule.
The convenience store group raised money in August to accelerate the pace of the roll-out of the Morrisons Daily format and has clearly been putting its foot down on the accelerator while its retail partner, Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LSE:MRW), was preoccupied with fielding bids from private equity groups.
McColl's continues to roll out Morrisons Daily at pace, ahead of the targets set at its capital raise earlier this year, generally converting six stores a week.
McColl’s said the rollout of Morrisons Daily stores is a key component of its strategic focus on food-led convenience, driving incremental sales and sales-mix improvement across the store.
The retailer said the Morrisons Daily conversions continue to deliver the strongest performance across the business, with 2-3 year payback on investment. McColl's expects to be operating 350 Morrisons Daily stores across its total estate of around 1,200 stores by November 2022.
Jonathan Miller, the chief executive of McColl's, said he and his team were “extremely excited” to reach this milestone:
"We are redefining neighbourhood retail in the communities we serve, putting us in the best possible position to meet customer demand in the future,” Miller claimed.
"Alongside an enhanced customer offer, we have a proven store conversion blueprint that offers a strong return on investment, delivering double-digit sales uplifts and rapid payback,” he added.
David Potts, Miller’s counterpart at Morrisons, said the Morrisons Daily convenience format is proving popular with customers.
"It's been a very impressive collective effort by the McColl's and Morrisons teams who have worked together so quickly and effectively,” Potts said.