Balfour News will expand rapidly in 2001 with the acquisition of 20 convenience stores to add to its existing 118, said managing director Mike Taylor. "We've had surprisingly few problems in finding suitable sites, said Taylor, who is already in advanced negotiations to buy about half of the properties in question. Balfour has also been disposing of stores which don't fit with the group's new focus on convenience retailing. "We've sold 11 CTNs over the past year because they were too small to be converted to the new format," said Taylor. {{NEWS }}