The Co-operative Group has become the largest convenience store retailer in the UK after buying rival Alldays for £131m.
The mutually owned retailer, of which the Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Co-op is part, bought the debt-laden business in a complex deal that will see shareholders receive just 5p per share.
Alldays, which has stores throughout Oxfordshire, was placed in the hands of receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers, which sold the assets and business of the company.
The enlarged group will run an estimated 1,700 stores across the UK and generate sales of more than £5.5bn a year.
A Co-op spokesman would not confirm whether job losses would be avoided.
Under the deal, the Co-operative Group is taking on responsibility for Alldays' creditors and its 10,500 staff.
The total funding for the deal is £131m, with £2.2m going to Alldays' shareholders and the rest to the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The bank is writing off an estimated £60m debt to allow the deal to go through.
Co-op chief executive Martin Beaumont said: "This deal establishes the Co-operative Group as the UK's leading convenience store operator."
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