All’s well that ends well? Not quite. McColl’s has obviously got the right rescuer in the shape of Morrisons, the biggest supplier by far to the 1,100-strong convenience store chain. But David Potts, the chief executive of Morrisons, was entitled to say he was “disappointed” that this mini-drama involved McColl’s going into administration at all. He could have said “furious”.
His group’s proposal at the end of last week to take the business in solvent form appeared to tick the main boxes. It protected pensioners, sought to maximise employment among McColl’s 16,000 staff and allowed bank lenders to switch into Morrisons-backed debt with a superior covenant. Most of all, the plan had commercial sense in its favour: with 250 McColl’s stores trading under the Morrisons Daily banner, so the major supermarket had a strong incentive to make the mismanaged operator work. It has looked the natural owner of McColl’s for weeks, if not months.
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