1,200 jobs at risk as My Local goes into administration
CONVENIENCE chain My Local has gone into administration, putting 1,200 jobs on the line.
90 stores have already closed down with three more set to shut down imminently, leaving only 32 left.
Administrators KPMG will need to find buyers for the remaining stores and 458 jobs will also be lost. It has been reported that The Co-operative was buying some of the remaining sites.
The administrators said that the convenience store sector had faced “significant challenges” and that My Local’s owners had failed to return the business to viability due to competition, pricing pressures and “general structural change” in the sector.
Former owners Morrisons have confirmed that employees in stores with no buyer would be able to get a job with the grocer.
Retail Gazette said that it understood employees in some stores such as Twickenham, Rochdale, Torquay, Maidstone and Cheltenham, had been laid off without redundancy pay.
In Yorkshire, sites in York, Bridlington, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Scarborough, Sheffield and three in Leeds have been closed, with a Doncaster store one of the three set to shut imminently.
The My Local location in Ilkley continues to trade.
The owners, Greybull Capital, announced their intention to appoint administrators last Tuesday.
According to The Telegraph, the My Local board said yesterday evening: “intense competition in the toughest market for convenience stores for 20 years and it has not proved possible to return the business to profit.”
This comes 10 months after it was sold by Morrisons to Greybull Capital in September 2015, with the backing of Mike Greene, Secret Millionaire star and former executive at McColls and Spar.
In November 2015, chief executive Mike Greene went on a recruitment drive to employ a further 250 people. He accused Morrisons of “basic errors” and expected the company to turn over a profit immediately.
Morrisons revealed that they were looking for buyers for the chain last year, after chairman Andrew Higginson revealed that around 30% of the convenience stores were underperforming.
