McColls Retail Group is a British convenience shop and newsagent operator, trading under the trading names McColls, Martins and RS McColl for shops in Scotland. McColl's also operates post offices in one third of the estate, making them the largest post office operator in the United Kingdom. In November 1998, RS McColl became part of TM Retail when Forbuoys acquired Martin Retail Group, creating Great Britain's largest chain of newsagents. In addition to RS McColl, TM Retail's former trading names include; Forbuoys, Martin's, Dillons, McColls and More. In 2006, TM Retail was renamed Martin McColl Limited, after a management buyout. The various stores were then rebranded variously as Martin's or McColl's. The only exceptions were the Scottish stores where the RS McColl name was retained. With this re branding, all other names the company operates under were removed, these included Martins the Newsagents, More, Forbuoys and Dillons. From 2009 to 2010, Martin McColl Limited underwent a multi million pound EPOS refit within their stores, replacing their existing EPOS system with a new multi screen touch screen system. It was hoped this would speed up the transaction process by incorporating Credit/Debit card systems within the EPOS. The multi screen system allows advertising POS to be electronically displayed to customers during the time that they are at the till. By 2011, expansion for the new system had been developed, with the addition of built in PayPoint terminals known as PPOD During 2012 to 2013, a barcode system was implemented to scan lottery tickets through the till making transactions more accurate and reducing the chances of human error. Martin McColl began another rebrand making the stores more appealing to customers and changed their POS format to go with the new brand. In March 2013, Martin McColl's implemented a company wide change in the colouring of SEL's and POS, opting for 'ivory' SEL strips and a mixture of block coloured red and white POS material. In August 2013, the group changed its name from Martin McColl Retail Group to McColls Retail Group. The company was floated on the stock market in January 2014. In July 2016, wholly owned subsidiary, Martin McColl Ltd, announced it would acquire 298 shops from The Co-operative Group for £117 million.
Criticism
After a number of robberies in Wirral, including one in which a manager was knocked out, McColls was fined £150,000, and ordered to pay £78,000 prosecution costs in November 2014, for failing to protect its staff.
