Convenience chain McColl’s has confirmed it has gone bust and will appoint administrators, putting 1,100 shops and 16,000 jobs at risk.
Bristol has a total of 30 McColl's stores in the area (according to its store locator), with people visiting the convenience chain on a daily basis and many local residents actually working there. A spokesman for the chain has said that the majority of its staff are part-time workers, but has yet to issue an update on how many jobs will be cut.
McColl’s said discussions with its lenders collapsed on Friday as creditors refused to extend a deadline for the retailer to find more cash.
Read more: McColl's convenience store chain 'on brink of collapse' putting thousands of jobs at risk
The company said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange: “In order to protect creditors, preserve the future of the business and to protect the interests of employees, the board was regrettably therefore left with no choice other than to place the company in administration, appointing PriceWaterhouseCoopers as administrators, in the expectation that they intend to implement a sale of the business to a third-party purchaser as soon as possible.”
McColl’s will apply to the court later today to appoint the administrators.
Shares on the stock market have been suspended.
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