By September 2010, Western Union national and international money transfer services will be offered at Martin McColl’s 700 stores throughout the country, increasing Western Union’s existing agent network of more than 11,000 locations.

Jan Hillered, senior vice president of Europe and CIS at Western Union, said: “Martin McColl has an excellent network of well-known stores in the UK, and has a particularly strong presence in neighbourhoods outside large cities, where Western Union is currently not prominent.

“We view the agreement with Martin McColl as an excellent opportunity to expand our UK network to these areas and offer more customers the opportunity to experience the speed, convenience and reliability of the Western Union service.”

Tony Start, trading director at Martin McColl, said: “We see the introduction of the Western Union money transfer service as a key driver in increasing customer footfall and driving incremental income. The introduction of the western union service will complement our initiative of providing a range of financial services to our customer base. We look forward to launching with Western Union in the second quarter.”