McColl’s has confirmed it has gone into administration, placing almost all shops and 16,000 jobs at risk.
The convenience store chain has over 1,100 outlets across England, Scotland and Wales.
McColl's employs around 16,000 staff, or roughly 6,000 full-time.
But the firm confirmed this afternoon it has had to go into administration "to preserve the future of the business and to protect the interests of employees".
McColl's now hopes another company will buy it.
Morrisons, which already runs a number of McColl's stores, was initially lined up to rescue the chain.
However, a statement this afternoon said the bid had been rejected.
A McColl's statement to the London Stock Exchange said: "In order to protect creditors, preserve the future of the business and to protect the interests of employees, the board was regrettably therefore left with no choice other than to place the company in administration, appointing PriceWaterhouseCoopers as administrators, in the expectation that they intend to implement a sale of the business to a third-party purchaser as soon as possible."
Morrisons added: "We put forward a proposal that would have avoided today's announcement that McColl's is being put into administration, kept the vast majority of jobs and stores safe, as well as fully protecting pensioners and lenders.
"For thousands of hardworking people and pensioners, this is a very disappointing, damaging and unnecessary outcome."
Are you affected by today's announcement? Get in touch: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
McColl's is understood to have been in discussions with potential lenders to shore up the business for several months, after it struggled during the pandemic due to supply chain issues, inflation and a heavy debt burden.
On Thursday, the company warned that unless those talks are successful, it is 'increasingly likely that the group would be placed into administration'.
This week, it was revealed the group was set to have its shares suspended from the London Stock Exchange as bosses said they would be unable to get its accounts signed off by auditors in time.
Shares in the company had already plunged as it reported last month that talks with its lenders and banks would likely leave shareholders empty-handed under rescue efforts.
EG Group, the petrol stations giant controlled by Asda owners Mohsin and Zuber Issa and the private equity firm TDR Capital, were also said to have held discussions about making an offer earlier this year.
The company raised £30million from shareholders in a cash call just seven months ago.
Jonathan Miller, McColl's chief executive, said in December that the financial year had "undoubtedly been a tough year for the business, ending with the widely reported and ongoing supply chain challenges".
The retailer had already been struggling previous to the pandemic.
"Although we have been able to partly mitigate these external factors, they have still had a significant impact on underlying trading," he added.
Miller is understood to have invested £3million personally in the fundraising last summer in a bid to save the business.
