Convenience chain McColl’s has confirmed it will collapse into administration, putting 1,100 shops and 16,000 workers at risk.

Local jobs could be affected as the troubled retailer has branches in parts of Watford, Bushey and Rickmansworth.

McColl’s had talks with its lenders on Friday (May 6) morning in the hope it could extend their its agreements.

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Supermarket giant Morrisons, which is a major wholesale partner, also tabled a last-ditch effort to buy the business, which it said would have “kept the vast majority of jobs and stores safe”.

However, the company confirmed “the lenders made clear that they were not satisfied that such discussions would reach an outcome acceptable to them”.

It said the company will now appoint administrators from PwC in an effort to “preserve the future of the business and to protect the interests of employees”.

McColl’s hopes  the administrators will help to “implement a sale of the business to a third-party purchaser as soon as possible”.

A spokesperson for the trustees of McColl’s Pension Schemes warned staff could miss out on payments following administration and urged any new owner to protect the schemes.

They said: “The pension schemes are significant stakeholders in the company, and the trustees call on all potential bidders to make clear that they will respect the pension promises made to the 2,000 members by McColl’s and its subsidiaries, and will not seek to break the link between the schemes and the company.”

The trustees added: “Breaking the link between the schemes and the sponsor company, by way of a pre-pack administration, would represent a serious breach of the pension promises made to staff who have served the business loyally over many years, and risks causing the schemes to enter the Pension Protection Fund with a resulting reduction in benefits.”

The insolvency announcement also caused Smiths News shares to plunge on Friday afternoon.

Smiths, which supplies magazines and newspapers to around 600 McColl’s stores, said it has a bad debt risk of between £6 million and £7 million in relation to McColl’s, with £1.2 million currently overdue from the convenience retailer.