Lewes and Steyning McColl's stores to be sold by Morrisons

The McColl's store on South Street in Lewes and on the High Street in Steyning are two of the 28 that Morrisons plans to sell in order to address concerns from the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) about competition between local stores.

Last year, Morrisons put in a late rescue deal for the newsagent operator after it was put into administration and 16,000 jobs were at risk.

To help this go through Morrisons has said it will sell 26 of the McColl's stores in England, one in Wales and one in Scotland.

Various McColl's stores will be sold around the UK (PA) (Image: PA)

This is because the CMA had raised concerns about 35 areas where it saw the potential for reduced competition between McColl’s and Morrisons stores.

Sorcha O’Carroll, CMA senior director of mergers, said: “Our preliminary view is that the sale of these stores will preserve competition in these local areas and prevent consumers from losing out due to this deal, at a time when shoppers are already facing rising prices.

“If, after reviewing the responses to our consultation, we conclude that the competition issues have been addressed, the deal will be cleared.”

A spokesperson for Morrisons said: "We are pleased that the CMA proposes to accept our offer to sell 28 McColl’s stores to address competition concerns and we look forward to a swift conclusion of this process."

While the number of McColl’s stores that Morrisons is proposing to sell is lower than the number of areas where concerns were originally identified, the CMA said the sale of some stores would address the concerns in multiple locations.