Morrisons ran about 700 franchise sites among more than 1,700 convenience stores in July 2026, and told its franchise partners it is targeting hundreds more in the years ahead. Retail Gazette reports that the supermarket is closing just over 100 of its company-owned convenience shops at the same time.
Morrisons Daily is the convenience fascia under which independent retailers trade with supply from Morrisons Wholesale. The Morrisons supermarkets are company-owned; the Daily format is the franchised part of the business.
At its annual franchise partner conference, held in July 2026, Morrisons set out targets to open hundreds more franchise stores but gave no figure. A press report in October 2025 put the 2026 rollout at 250 stores, a number Morrisons has not confirmed and for which that report named no source.
What Morrisons told franchise partners in July
The July conference came with incentives rather than a store count. Morrisons said it has doubled its Refer a Friend recruitment incentive, and that franchisees switching a shop from another symbol group to Morrisons Daily can receive £2,000 per site. A Hot Weather Club offer, triggered when local temperatures reach 23°C, cuts the cost of water and ice lines by more than 10%.
Terms, rebates and entry routes
The commercial terms were reset a year earlier. In July 2025, Morrisons raised the maximum volume rebate for independent partners to 6%, from a previous cap of 1.5% on products. Morrisons describes three ways in: convert an existing shop, repurpose a property such as a pub, or build new.
Its published criteria include a minimum of 1,200 sq ft for a neighbourhood store and 1,000 sq ft for a forecourt store, a weekly turnover target of around £25,000 and a catchment of about 2,000 households, a level of detail few of the food and drink brands recruiting UK operators publish.
Good to know: a symbol group conversion
A SPAR in Plungington Road, Preston, closed on 30 November 2025 and reopened on 4 December 2025 as a Morrisons Daily operated as a franchise store. SPAR is a symbol group, a supply and fascia arrangement, so the move is a retailer changing fascia rather than a first-time franchise signing.
The company-owned closures alongside the growth plan
Retail Gazette reported on 1 June 2026 that Morrisons is closing just over 100 company-owned convenience shops, many inherited in the 2022 rescue of McColl’s for £190 million. The paper said Morrisons described the shops as loss-making and challenged for years. A Morrisons spokesperson said in March 2026 that there would be no direct impact on Morrisons Daily stores.
What has not been published
Morrisons has not published a store-by-store list for 2026, and its conference release gives no count of franchise partners. Morrisons says the franchise model lets it add stores faster and with less upfront cost, and it has appointed Peter Batt, formerly of Nisa, as operations director for convenience stores.
Individual openings surface through Morrisons’ corporate news pages and local press, as with the Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire, opening on 23 October 2025, run by the Sood family, who had operated the shop for more than five years before it became a Morrisons Daily. Operators without a shop already in hand can compare brands recruiting partners in the UK.
