Website martinmccoll.co.uk Type of business Retail | Founded 1901 | |
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RS McColl, or "McColl's" is a Scottish newsagent company named after Robert Smyth McColl, who was a professional footballer. It was founded in 1901 by McColl and his brother Tom.
RS McColl is a trading name of McColls Retail Group, It has been a prominent Scottish confectioner and newsagent and has been owned in the past by Cadburys and the Southland Corporation of America (7-Eleven).
Business background and history
In 1998 RS McColl became part of TM Retail when Forbuoys (a subsidiary of TM Retail) acquired Martin Retail Group, creating Great Britain's largest chain of newsagents. In addition to RS McColl, TM Retail's other trading names include; Forbuoys, Martin's, Dillons (purchased from One Stop Stores Ltd following the takeover by Tesco of parent company T&S Stores), 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 (news and variety stores) or McColl's (convenience stores). 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.
In 2009/2010 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 and 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. Martin McColl worked hard to give better deals to the customer and ensure the customer had a good experience through better deals and better communication with staff and customers.
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.