Sheffield store managers and staff are in the dark about their livelihoods after UK retailer McColl’s went into administration today.

The corner-shop retailer, which has four stores across Sheffield and employs 16,000 workers nationally, has been owned by Morrisons since 2017.

One McColl’s store manager told Sheffield Wire: “It’s a bit premature to talk about it, we’ve not heard anything. Minimum wage workers are always the last ones to know, it’s Morrisons’ head office that should deal with it.

“It’s people’s livelihoods that are at stake here.”

Elsewhere in Sheffield, McColl’s store managers were more reluctant to offer a reaction to the potential loss of employment to shop workers.

Another declared: “We’ve been told we’re not allowed to say anything,” while others declined to comment.

Today a spokesperson for McColl’s UK confirmed the company had been placed into administration, with the immediate administrative custody of the company in the hands of professional services firm PwC.

He said: “The Board was regrettably therefore left with no choice other than to place the Company in administration, appointing PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP as administrators, in the expectation that they intend to implement a sale of the business to a third-party purchaser as soon as possible.”

Yesterday evening, Morrisons have launched a last-ditch proposal to rescue McColl’s from administration.

A change in owner is expected to happen soon, with the representative from McColl’s confirming members of the Board appeared in Court today to place the company into administration.

Workers across McColl’s network of 1,265 stores across the UK are awaiting further news over the change in ownership.