My Local boss Mike Greene plays down stock shortages on launch day

Some of the former Morrisons stores, which operated under the M Local c-store fascia until yesterday evening, opened with empty shelves while other shops delayed their opening despite being rebranded since My Local took ownership of the estate at midnight.

London’s Oxford Street store was among the locations where the shutters remained down. Staff could be seen cleaning floors and stocking shelves and said they would “hopefully” open their doors for business this afternoon.

“There’s no one else in the UK that could have come close to Nisa in terms of delivering against that ask”

 Mike Greene, My Local

Convenience veteran Greene, who has been backed by Greybull Capital in his bid to rejuvenate the stores, insisted it was always going to be “a mammoth task” to fill the shelves overnight after My Local bosses decided not to retain any of Morrisons’ stock.

And he reaffirmed his faith in symbol group Nisa, with whom My Local has signed a five-year supply deal worth £1bn.

Greene told Retail Week: “We didn’t take ownership of the stores until midnight, which meant we couldn’t get deliveries in until after then. It was always going to take us a day or two to build up the stock levels.

“Most stores weren’t planned to open today. It was always going to be the case that they will take over, get deliveries in when we could, then open as and when the shops are ready.”

Greene said that around 30 shops were rebranded overnight and opened this morning. Fifty more will be rebranded today with the remaining 60 stores to be rebranded tonight and tomorrow.

Stock decisions

He added that My Local had expected to be discussing plans for Morrisons’ leftover stock “until the last minute” and insisted there had been no disagreement with the supermarket giant.

“It was always the case that we would review the stock in stores and talk about how best to handle it,” Greene said.

“We could never take Morrisons’ own-label products anyway and in the end it was a joint decision that it was cleaner for us to start with completely fresh stock.

“That just means it takes a bit longer to stock the shelves. Physically, getting something like 800,000 hours of stock across 130 stores through one supplier is always going to be a challenge.”

Greene described the tie-up with Nisa as “a fantastic deal” and admitted the symbol group faced “a mammoth task” to stock all 140 stores overnight.

Greene said: “There’s no one else in the UK that could have come close to Nisa in terms of delivering against that ask.”