Low consumer confidence leads to profit drop at McColl’s

Convenience retailer McColl’s Retail Group has warned that its EBITDA will be below expectations as the combination of unseasonable weather and lower consumer confidence led to ‘softer market conditions’ in the second half of the year.

Adjusted EBITDA for FY19 is expected to be £32 million, while turnover was down 1.9% for the full year, with total like-for-like sales level.

It reduced net debt to £94.1 million, from £98.6 million in FY 2018.

Jonathan Miller, chief executive at McColl’s,said: “While 2019 has been another challenging year for the business, we have made good progress against our goals of operational stability and good retail execution.

“We are also pleased to confirm that we have continued to reduce net debt, with further progress anticipated due to our ongoing capital discipline.”

The retailer said it had seen benefits from improvement of on-shelf availability and advancement of its category review programme.

In December 2018 McColl’s completed its transition to Morrisons to supply its 1,300 stores. The move to Morrisons’ supply came in the wake of the collapse of wholesaler Palmer & Harvey in 2017.

This year has seen it appoint Robbie Bell as chief financial officer and Richard Crampton as chief commercial officer.