May 30, 2022
UK regulator orders Morrisons to keep McColl’s operations separate
The UK competition regulator has told Wm Morrison to keep its business separate from that of McColl's while it weighs a full investigation into the supermarket chain's takeover of the failed convenience store operator. On Monday the Competition and Markets Authority issued an order requiring Morrisons to halt any integration of the two companies' operations while it considered launching an investigation into the deal on competition grounds. Morrisons has not operated convenience stores directly since 2015, when it sold its lossmaking M Local brand in order to focus on its conventional supermarkets. Clayton, Dubilier and Rice, the US private equity group that bought Morrisons last October, also owns Motor Fuel Group, which operates 921 petrol stations around the UK. Some of them have convenience stores attached to them, operated by Londis, Budgens or Marks and Spencer, and it is likely to look at introducing the Morrisons brand at many more. The CMA is already investigating whether the overlap between Morrisons' 339 supermarket filling stations and MFG's operations will reduce competition, but appears minded to accept the companies' offer to sell 87 stations to rival operators.
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