McColl’s Retail Group has opened its 700th convenience store, keeping expansion plans on track.

Located in Bowbroom, Swinton in South Yorkshire, the site was formerly a Working Men’s Club that has been re-developed to provide a convenience store for the local community.

This milestone keeps the McColl’s Group on track to hit its target of 800 convenience stores by 2015. McColl’s plans to continue converting its newsagents to a food and wine format as well as acquire more convenience stores to meet its target. The convenience channel now accounts for over 70% of the group’s total sales.

Chairman and CEO of McColl’s Retail Group James Lancaster said: “This is yet another milestone for the group since we embarked on our strategy of becoming a convenience-led operator. We are on track with our strategy and well-positioned to take advantage of the wider convenience sector growth. I look forward to us building on our successes and continuing to develop our offer to satisfy our existing and new customers’ needs.”