The traditional high street newsagent is battling for survival as supermarket giants push into the convenience store market, according to the boss of Britain’s largest chain of managed convenience stores and newsagents.
Britain’s largest food retailers, J Sainsbury, Tesco and Wm Morrison, are switching their attention from traditional supermarkets to online retailing and smaller neighborhood stores
However, this is putting strain on local newsagents, of which there are more than 20,000 in the UK.
Chief executive of Martin McColl, James Lancaster, said: “Newsagents are not dead, but they do need to change.”
Martin McColl is transforming some newsagents into convenience stores and in smaller sites is adding basic food such as bread and milk.
In the company’s last financial year, this helped to drive growth in like-for-like sales and profits despite the competition from supermarkets and challenging economic conditions.
Martin McColl said sales increased 5 per cent to £845m, including 2.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis, while operating profits increased by 15 per cent to £15.8m.
The company has 1,265 stores in the UK, including 670 convenience stores and 595 newsagents. It is the leading lottery retailer in the UK and also has 400 post offices.
Over the last year, 36 of its newsagents were transformed into convenience stores. Mr Lancaster is also looking to open more than 100 new convenience stores so that the company has 800 stores by 2015.
He said business is “going very well” and that Martin McColl can meet the challenge of new Sainsbury’s Local, Tesco Express and M Local stores.
Mr Lancaster added: “We believe we can compete. We have many, many years of experience.”
Martin McColl’s plans have been improved after it struck a refinancing deal on £126.5m of debt in March.
