Top 50 Indie Bishop Retail has been sold to to KSC Worldwide Ltd, following completion of a deal with the Stamford Group. The sale will see KSC take ownership of the nine sites in the North East of England trading under the Harvest Energy and Mace brands.

Bishop Retail, which was created in February 2009 following a change of ownership, was a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Stamford Group.

It has undergone a series of store developments in the past two years totalling £1.5m. It was also successful at the recent Forecourt Trader of the Year awards, winning the Best Northern England site in the ‘up to 2.5mlpa’ category.

Last year it signed up all nine sites to a new fuel supplier, Harvest Energy; and in August 2010 it rebranded all its stores to the Mace convenience format. The redeveloped sites now offer an enhanced top-up shopping range, both fresh and ambient; as well as chilled beers and wines.

Operations director Darren MacDonald said: “We are extremely pleased and excited KSC Worldwide Ltd have decided to purchase Bishop Retail. It gives us a fantastic base from which to grow the business going forward for both our staff and customers. There is a real buzz in the group after the announcement and we want to take that momentum and build on it. ”

Darren said KSC Worldwide Ltd were new investors to the forecourt arena, bringing a wealth of business expertise from a diverse portfolio of businesses.

“They plan to invest and grow the business using the existing management team over then next few years.”

He confirmed that the Bishop Retail trading name would continue. The group will be called KSC Worldwide Ltd trading as Bishop Retail.