My Local founder Mike Greene 'truly sorry' for c-store chain's collapse

My Local, which was born out of Morrisons failed convenience arm, drafted in administrators KPMG just nine months after its launch in October last year.

Its demise, which makes it the third retailer to fall into administration in the space of just two months after BHS and Austin Reed, leaves 1,658 jobs at risk, although Morrisons has already vowed to re-employ any of its former staff.

Convenience store veteran and star of TV show The Secret Millionaire Greene, whose venture was backed by private equity firm Greybull Capital, laid out his ambitious plans for My Local in an interview with Retail Week last year.

But after he failed to turn around the 140-store business, Greene said: “I would like to thank our employees, who have worked tirelessly since the launch to create a new, independent competitor in the convenience store market.

“It was never going to be easy. When we took over, the network was heavily loss-making and some stores had closed.

“The last nine months has been one of the toughest retail trading periods that I have ever experienced and My Local has faced intense competition.”

Greene said a tough period of trading at My Local was compounded by price investment by supermarket competitors, “piling further pressure on prices and margins.”

He added: “Of course it is easy to blame market conditions. But the reality is that, while we more than halved the rate of losses, the management team has been unable to return the business to profitability. For that I am truly sorry.

“We will continue to support the administrators in their efforts to safeguard as many jobs as possible.”

A portion of My Local’s store leases will now revert back to former owner Morrisons, which retained a guarantee on the shops and a liability on the leases it said would cost no more than £20m when it sold them to My Local.