Morrisons have revealed plans to close 132 unprofitable McColl’s stores putting up to 1,300 jobs at risk, months after buying the chain out of administration. The Bradford based supermarket giant acquired the troubled chain for £190 million back in May, fending off a rival offer at that time from Asda. Competition regulators gave the green light for the takeover last week following which Morrisons unveiled their plans for the stores. Morrisons said, that whist 132 stores have no realistic prospect of achieving a breakeven position, it does expect some McColl’s stores to return to profitability as part of its turnaround plans. The majority of the closures are due to take place this year, and 55 of the stores that include a Post Office counter will close in the coming year. Morrisons said every affected worker would be offered alternative employment at a nearby McColl’s store, Morrisons store, logistics operation or foodmaking centre. Joseph Sutton, Morrisons convenience, online and wholesale director, said: “We have a great deal of work to do but there’s no question that McColl’s is a business with strong potential. “I’m confident that the combination of McColl’s conveniently located stores and great colleagues together with Morrisons scale, brand, systems and fresh food expertise will lead to a transformation of the business. “We very much regret the proposed closure of 132 loss-making stores but it is, very sadly, an important step towards the regeneration of the business. “I am confident that McColl’s can, in the Morrisons family, once again become a growing, thriving and vibrant convenience business serving local communities across the UK.” Last month, the UK competition regulator paved the way for the clearance of Morrisons £190m rescue deal on the condition it sold 28 McColl’s stores in 35 areas where the two retailers compete. All 16,000 McColl’s staff were transferred to Morrisons as part of the deal.

Award-winning cybersecurity consultancy, Pentest People, has become one of the first companies in the UK to be accepted onto the CREST OWASP Verification Standard (OVS) for application security testing. Pentest People has satisfied the Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST) that it can deliver web application security assessments to meet both Level 1 and Level 2 of the Open Web Application Security Project’s Application Security Verification Standard (OWASP ASVS). The new OWASP Verification Standard has been introduced to provide organisations with the assurance that accredited providers have the required skills and competencies to perform in-depth application security assessments and to ensure that the same rigorous web application testing criteria and methods are consistently applied throughout the cyber security industry. Developed with governments, regulatory bodies and multi-national organisations with the goal of improving global application security, CREST OVS also provides mobile and web application developers with a higher level of quality assurance. The new Pentest People CREST OVS team will be led by Alex Archondakis, head of Professional Services. Commenting on the new application security testing framework, Alex said, “The CREST OVS framework provides a common set of criteria that we use to perform rigorous application testing that goes well beyond the standard OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities and involves source code review and a security audit of underlying databases, operating systems and internal processes surrounding the application. OVS requires testers to also assess the documentation and process flows for application logic. As such, an OVS test is likely to be requested by organisations working in regulated industries such as banking and finance.” Accredited CREST OVS testers must examine applications against 286 separate requirements. “We’ve added CREST OVS to our service offerings to provide security mature clients with a more in-depth assessment that not only examines an application’s external security, but also checks for vulnerabilities in source code, underlying operating system and database accounts, logic flows and internal processes. The beauty of the framework is that it shows where developers have got things right, as well as highlighting any critical flaws that they need to focus on fixing,” explains Alex Archondakis. Andrew Mason, co-founder of Pentest People, comments, “Pentest People are always looking to innovate and enhance our services so that we stay at the forefront of the industry. CREST OVS tests, delivered by our specialist consultants, will offer security mature companies the assurance that their applications, code, underlying servers and internal processes meet the highest security standards.” “Our consultants already include a number of CHECK team leaders and CHECK team members. We have a really high standard of security professionals working for the company. We also have our own in-house developers who can assist with source code reviews, so we’re one of the only companies in the UK that can offer both Level 1 and Level 2 OVS testing.  As part of our accreditation, Pentest People’s OVS consultants have also completed CREST’s Skilled Person Register and signed the Code of Conduct for ethical security testers.” Led by Anthony Harvey, Gavin Watson, Robin Hill and Andrew Mason, Pentest People has grown from four to over a hundred employees within four years. The company employs a number of CHECK team leaders, who possess qualifications and penetration testing experience approved by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). To accommodate its growing team and training programme, Pentest People moved into the largest office in Leeds’ Coach Works earlier this year and opened a second office close to GCHQ’s cyber security hub in Cheltenham.

Unison members who have just completed 5 days of strike action at the National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield have just discovered that there is no government imposed pay cap.

During pay negotiations the museum’s senior managers told UNISON that they were unable to make an improved pay offer as they are subject to a pay cap that is imposed by central government. UNISON members had already rejected the museum’s 4.2% pay offer, which was then increased by 25p per hour. Members decided to go ahead with the strike action as the offer was less than half the current rate of inflation. In a public statement on the museum’s website, it said that the “sum of the proposal takes us to the maximum allowed within the Government Pay Remit”. After UNISON contacted the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) it has been confirmed that the pay cap does not apply to the museum. Sam Greenwood, Unison branch secretary said: “We are bitterly disappointed to have been misled about the existence of a pay cap. We asked the museum to contact DCMS to confirm that the pay cap applied to them, but they refused to do so. More than 40 of our members have been on strike for a week based on incorrect information from the museum and the museum has lost income during a busy half term school holiday. We have written to the Board of Trustees expressing our concerns and we hope that a resolution can be achieved so that the further 12 days of strike action that we have planned can be averted. It really is down to the museum to put this right”.

Retail specialist law firm Gordons has been appointed by Whole Foods Market, the US-headquartered supermarket chain which specialises in organic and natural products. The firm was initially engaged to advise on the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) and is now providing a range of legal services for Whole Foods Market’s UK business. Gordons acts for seven of the nation’s top 14 grocery businesses including B&M, Iceland, Morrisons and Ocado Retail. The firm is helping Whole Foods Market grow its business in the UK where the retailer currently has seven stores. Overall, Whole Foods Market has more than 500 stores with more in the pipeline. Gordons partner and head of food and drink, Mark Jones, commented: “Whole Foods Market is a grocery retailer that cares deeply about its customers and the planet. “It sets high standards and operates win-win relationships with its suppliers. A culture of excellence, mutually beneficial partnerships and contributing positively to society are values we share which makes us a good fit.”