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C-store chain McColl’s Retail Group (MCLS) has announced its “best-ever” set of results in its maiden full-year as a listed company. Revenues exceeded £900m for the first time, growing 6.1% from £869.4m in 2013 to £922.4m in the 53 weeks to 30 November – when adjusting for the extra week, growth levels came down to 4.1%, with like-for-like sales ahead 0.7%.

McColl’s said turnover was boosted by the acceleration of its store development activity, with 45 newsagents converted to the food-and-wine model and 60 new store acquisitions completed, more than double the 23 of the previous year.

Operating profit before exceptional items increased by 13.2% to £25.5m and pre-tax profit rose from £4.4m to £12.6m.

“I’m delighted to announce our first full year set of results since the IPO last February,” CEO James Lancaster said. “It has been a year of strong growth despite the wider macroeconomic trends. We upped the tempo of our growth strategy finishing the period with 799 convenience stores, and acquiring our 800th shortly after the period end. Our post office conversions were completed ahead of target and are providing our customers with longer and more convenient times to carry out their post office transactions.”

Despite the seemingly good news, investors were less than impressed, taking flight as the market opened to send shares in McColl’s plunging almost 11% to 151.5p. The group warned that although the market was “full of opportunities” it also remained “challenging and competitive”. Since the year end, like-for-like sales are down by -1.2% in the 13 week period to 1 March.

McColl’s was valued at £200m at the time of its IPO – the lower end of its range – but at this morning’s price its market cap has come down to £158m.

Morning update

British American tobacco (BATS) has filed a request with the Brazilian securities regulator to register a public tender offer to acquire up to all of the 24.7% of Souza Cruz shares it does not currently own and to delist the company. The offer for the shares in Souza Cruz, announced last month, stands at R$26.75 each, to be paid in cash in Brazilian Reais. It represents a premium of 30% to Souza Cruz’s volume weighted average closing share price over the three months to 20 February 2015.

Shares in BAT opened 1.4% higher this morning to 3,808p. In the wider grocery market, Ocado (OCDO) and Majestic Wine (MJW) followed up share price falls yesterday with further losses this morning, both down about 2% to 365.3p and 341p respectively.

Yesterday in the City

Shares in Thorntons (THT) were back on the slide today after the chocolatier posted collapsing sales in its first half in its increasingly important UK commercial business as it got caught in the crossfire of the increasingly bitter supermarket price war. After bouncing back by 12.3% on Friday – following a 20%-plus decline during the week – Thorntons stock fell another 5.5% to 69p.

Fyffes (FFY) fell again today by 1.7% to 86p after sliding 2.6% on Friday following its final year results.

Other fallers yesterday included McColl’s Retail Group (MCLS) (down 5% to 170p), Majestic Wine (MJW) (down 3.1% to 346.8p) and Premier Foods (PFD) (down 1.7% to 43p).

The three listed supermarkets all posted rises yesterday after falling on Friday. Morrisons (MRW) gained the most (up 1.6% to 198.8p), followed by Tesco (TSCO) (up 0.5% to 246.7p) and then Sainsbury’s (SBRY) (up 0.04% to 272p).

The biggest riser, though, was Irish dairy and sports nutrition group Glanbia (GLB) which closed 5% up at €16.88. The business’s stock jumped 5.3% last week on the day it posted a 6.9% full year revenue growth alongside a bullish forecast for the year ahead. Glanbia is also said to be readying itself for a glut of deals in 2015 to bulk up its growing sports nutrition division.

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