Nisa has signed a new short-term contract to supply around 700 McColl’s stores that were previously serviced by Palmer and Harvey.
The stores in question will receive ambient stock delivered through existing Nisa-supplied McColl’s stores, for onward transfer by McColl’s teams.
Arnu Misra, interim CEO of Nisa, said: “I’m very pleased that Nisa has been selected by McColl’s to further support them at this crucial time. We have a highly flexible distribution model that enables us to scale quickly to members’ needs and as demand dictates. As a result, we will continue to manage both existing and new members without impacting our traditionally high levels of service, especially over the peak trading period.”
The news comes as the latest trading update from McColl’s revealed the company has achieved annual revenues of over £1bn for the first time.
The figures, for the 13- and 52-week periods ended November 26, 2017, also showed that total revenue rose 28.9% in Q4 and 19.1% for the full year. This followed the successful integration of 298 former Co-op stores.
Full-year like-for-like (LFL) sales crept up 0.1%, with significant mix improvements because of growth in key grocery categories alongside declining traditional categories. This was split between LFL sales in convenience stores up 0.1% and LFL sales in newsagents down 0.2%.
Total LFL sales shrunk by 1.1% in Q4. McColl’s put this down to declining traditional categories and unfavourable weather.
LFL sales in recently acquired and converted stores were up 1.3% in Q4 and 2.4% for the full year.
Twenty-five convenience store refreshes were successfully completed in H2, bringing the total to 27, with a further 100 planned for 2018. The number of stores with a Subway franchise now stands at 18.
The company remains on track to achieve results for the full year in line with management expectations.
Jonathan Miller, Chief Executive, said: “As we look ahead to next year, we will focus on delivering an enhanced customer offer in over 1,300 stores through the ground-breaking wholesale partnership we signed with Morrisons, which will see us launch hundreds of Safeway branded products, exclusively in McColl’s from January 2018.”
