Convenience store McColl’s have reported a sharp drop in profits due to the collapse of groceries wholesaler, Palmer & Harvey.
The administration of Palmer & Harvey in November 2017, “created major disruption” as McColl’s lost the supply to 700 of their convenience stores, forcing the retailer to arrange a new supply deal with Morrisons.
Jonathan Miller, chief executive for McColl’s said, “Moving to a new wholesale supply partner, at a much faster pace than anticipated, created its own challenges and severely disrupted our plans for the launch of Safeway.”
McColl’s pre-tax profit declined to £7.9m for the financial year ended 25 November, from £18.4mthe year earlier.
Like-for-like sales fell 1.4% however, total revenue increased by £1.24bn due to an acquisition of 300 convenience stores in 2017.
Miller said, “2018 was undoubtedly a challenging year, marked by supply chain disruption following Palmer & Harvey’s entry into administration and the accelerated transition to our new supply partner, Morrisons.
“Despite this disruption, we continued to make progress against a number of our key strategic plans.
“We completed the roll-out of 1,300 stores to Morrisons supply in less than nine months, which represents a considerable achievement and provides us with a more secure supply chain and a higher quality chilled and fresh offer.
“We also continued to invest in our estate, with 59 convenience store refreshes completed in the year and 11 new stores acquired.”
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