McColl’s staff face uncertain future as company searches for saviour

Hundreds of Southport workers for the McColl’s supermarket chain are still waiting to hear about the future of their jobs.

Administrators are set to be appointed for the business which has 1,100 stores and around 16,000 employees. 

EG Group, the petrol station empire owned by the Blackburn-based billionaire Issa brothers, has been poised to buy McColl’s but now supermarket giants Morrisons has now tabled an eleventh-hour improved offer.

This offer includes keeping on all current staff.

McColl’s employs around 16,000 staff across the chain but only around 2,000 are in the two defined benefit pension schemes that are at risk.

The convenience store sector as a whole has done relatively well during the pandemic, as people shopped closer to home. 

However, McColl’s has run into difficulties as it attempted to update the range of food it sold, a process made harder by Covid-related supply chain problems.