Although they achieved this goal, in October 1996 the company had to post a profit warning, which was linked to the expansion of its foodservice division.

[2] In 1997 Colin Glass took over as chief executive and managed to improve the company's like-for-like sales growth, during which a deal was struck with Total S.A. to put their stores in up to 250 of their petrol stations across the UK.

During his time there he introduced price promotions aimed at increasing sales volumes, but was unsuccessful contributing to a poor second half.

Shares fell to a five-year low when the group, hit by the cost of buying back stores operated by its regional development companies, posted full-year pre-tax losses of £64m.

[6] The chain effectively put itself up for sale in June 2002, when it reported an interim pre-tax loss of £4.6m, weighed down by its rising interest bill[7] and The Co-operative Group acquired Alldays' core business in October 2002 for £131m.