Mccoll's Retail Share Discussion Threads

[loganair] 01/11/2019 19:38

I think Morrison's will wait if they are going to buy McColl's, wait to see whether selling Safeway products in McColl's stores or rebranding McColl's stores to Morrison's which is best. This will take a couple of years.

It seems to me, Morrison's will not be pushed early to make any decision on McColl's just because they have fallen into 5th Place, behind Aldi as even if they buy McColl's, Aldi will still over take them into 4th place.

[cliff edge] 01/11/2019 17:53

Not so sure Mc Colls have sold their HO, but there is an approved change of use planning application to change the use of the buildings from office space to residential use, this could mean that whoever purchases has the built in assurance that they can sell off the buildings & land with the benefit of an approved planning application to a developer, because they would have no future use for them as office space? Personally, I do not think that MRW have got two years on their side in order to make a move, as previously suggested they are between 12 and 20 months away from being pushed into 5th place with market share, don't believe they will want to get that close that soon. IMO the value in this share is all about the fundamentals of the Convenience market and what mcls have that make it attractive ie. Established customer base with 5m visits per week, stores ripe for brand recognition with massive potential upside, residential locations etc.

[loganair] 01/11/2019 15:29

McColl's selling their HQ and turning into flats could easily take a year before they have to move out.

In a years time McColl's is likely to have around 200 to 220 newsagents left in their portfolio and in 2 years down to around 170 to 150 newsagents. Down from the nearly 550 they had at the beginning of 2014.

[spectoacc] 01/11/2019 15:23

Morrisons and only Morrisons IMO, fail to see how anyone else could bid unless a non-sector owner, whom MRW don't mind having some of their branding. We all expcet it'll happen, but none of us expect it to happen yet.

[loganair] 01/11/2019 15:06

From Morrison's early October:

Morrisons is seeking to expand its convenience store presence in order to increase the size of its potential customer base. This has the potential to boost its financial performance, with the company forecast to deliver a rise in earnings of 7% in the next financial year. Since it trades on a forward P/E ratio of 13.5, it seems to offer good value for money at the present time.


Morrison's first attempt into convenience stores ended badly because they took on Blockbuster stores when they went bust, which were far too small, in the wrong place with onerous leases.

[bigtommy] 01/11/2019 15:02

I didn't realise that, blimey.

Agree, 15% would be pretty easy. All depends if Morrisons want to go back into Convenience retailing, their first attempt didn't end that well. I suspect their small trial in McColls stores will take a while longer to be digested and understood if successful or not.
It would suit a company with a presence already in Convenience retailing as they would understand how to turn the estate round.

[loganair] 01/11/2019 14:56

Not Booker as Booker are owned by Tesco's who already have a large percentage share of the convenience store market.

Morrison's buying McColl's, they could most probably reduce McColl's costs by some 15%.

[bigtommy] 01/11/2019 14:52

I'm not concerned about opinions in anyway, don't worry about that!

I think you're right anyway, they'll get bought out by another retailer, either Grocery operator like Morrisons or Wholesale such as Booker or Bestway. Take the Morrisons delivered service away and bring in-house, remove McColls H/O function, reduce costs & re-brand the shops in prime locations, Council Estates etc.
McColls need to focus on customer service, price & quality on fresh goods.

They are allegedly de-stocking & selling their H/O. These are actions that you undertake for a reason, especially with their FY numbers due at the end of November..

Tommy.

[loganair] 01/11/2019 14:50

All the McColl's near me are not on the High Street, they are in local parade of shops in housing estates and are the only convenience stores in the various parades.

In the past 5 years McColl's have already closed around 50% of their by-gone era newsagents and with in another 2 years 1/3rd of their remaining newsagents are also likely to be closed.

The new stores McColl's are opening are much larger and have far more turn over then the poorly performing stores they are closing.

[loganair] 01/11/2019 14:36

I remember the old Cable & Wireless, after it was split in two, the CEO of the fixed line side was heavily buying shares in the fixed line side for some 3 years before Liberty took them over at double the price the CEO was buying his shares for.

I have posted quite a few times that I think if Morrison do bid, they'll wait a couple of years to see whether selling Safeway foods in McColl's stores of changing McColl's stores into Morrison's own branded convenience stores is best and will also give McColl's time to close 1/3rd of their remaining newsagents and maybe another 50 of their most poorly performing stores while opening a further 20 larger stores which on average are 2.7 times more turn over then the stores McColl's are closing.

[bigtommy] 01/11/2019 14:27

OK, that's your opinion

Something is happening.

[she-ra] 31/10/2019 16:00

There aren't big rumours in the trade.

[bigtommy] 31/10/2019 15:57

She-ra - No there aren't what?

[loganair] 31/10/2019 15:50

What will Estonia's richest man say who bought most of his 11% stake in McColl's from the Chairman at 295p???

[she-ra] 31/10/2019 15:50

BigTommy - No there arent

[aleman] 31/10/2019 15:46

Management buy-out, with hedge fund backing, delist, run off rest of small store leases, and flip it to Morrisons in a couple of years?

[bigtommy] 31/10/2019 15:42

I think there's something going on. Big rumours in the trade that they have been approached for a buy-out so I wonder whether someone has got wind of it..

They've also sold their Brentwood H/O for flats...

[loganair] 31/10/2019 13:24

Somebody has just bought 300,000 shares this morning and yesterday afternoon somebody bought 160,000 shares - same person?

A total of 460,000 shares being bought in less then 24 hours at a cost of £149k.

[loganair] 29/10/2019 14:43

My question being was McColl's share price pushed to 295p at that time knowing that the Chairman was going to sell his shares as he managed to sell right at the very top.

The Charmian did not sell in the open market, he sold in a single sell to Estonia's richest man who I doubt will ever get the entirety of his money back and maybe lucky to only get back 50% of what he paid in the first place for his shares.

[cliff edge] 29/10/2019 14:25

Re the Directors buys and sells, Former Chairman & co founder James Lancaster sold out at retirement in October 2017 which was initially mentioned during the original IPO in 2014. ceo bought 250k shares at 46p in September 2019, which was one of two 250k buys to take place that day.

[loganair] 29/10/2019 13:56

Interesting, the only Open short position in McColl's is BlackRock who on Monday have slightly reduced their short from 0.7% to 0.63%.

There is no other short position currently in McColl's.

Just for interest over the past month BlackRock have slightly increased their short positions in both Sainsbury's and Morrison.

[loganair] 24/10/2019 16:20

Just looking back at the Buys and Sells of the directors.


October 2017 McColl's Chairman sold 11,399,400 shares at 295p which was right at the very top, selling them on to Klarus Capital which is owned by Estonia's richest man.

September 2019 McColl's CEO bought 250,000 shares at 46p bringing his total holding to 11,449,500 shares.

[loganair] 23/10/2019 20:30

Potts not only seems to have a Plan B, he also seems to have a Plan C & D as well.


Mr Potts CEO of Morrison's supermarkets acknowledges that “Amazon has ambition in grocery and we are one of the smaller British retailers. Both companies want to support innovative, different ways of serving customers better in the UK.” He also confirms that Morrisons could supply Amazon stores with groceries, if — or rather when — they finally open their till-free Go sites, and that distribution work is already going on for Amazon to use Morrisons supermarkets as “offering one- to two-hour delivery using our stores.”