McColl’s said it made “good progress” in its third quarter to May 26 as total sales jumped 4.3%.

In the 13 weeks to May 26 like-for-likes slipped 0.5% against last year, which McColl’s said was due to tough comparatives with last year when summer traded particularly strongly.

Year-to-date total sales increased 3.9% and it recorded like-for-likes in the period up 1.2%.

McColl’s said its convenience estate development is on-track and it will achieve its target of trading from 1,000 convenience stores by the end of 2016. It now has a total of 771 convenience stores out of its 1,298 estate. The retailer bought 10 new ‘premium convenience’ stores in the quarter and converted 16 newsagent stores to food and wine stores.

It added that it has made “excellent progress” on the modernisation of the Post Office network.

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