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Convenience store companies in London

4,355 convenience store companies have a registered office in London, and 1,122 of them were formed in 2025 or 2026. In their latest accounts, the typical one held £12,319 in cash and owed £51,685 at year end.

Companies House register, 1 September 2026, and accounts filed in the last twelve months. Compared with the official category “Retail sale in non-specialised stores with food, beverages or tobacco predominating” (SIC 47110).

The numbers

Convenience store companies in London compared with the same category across the UK. Typical figures are medians.
MeasureLondonUK
Registered companies4,35536,745
Formed in 2025 or 20261,122 (26%)30%
Being struck off or in liquidation557 (13%)12%
Typical cash at year end£12,319912 accounts£14,627
Typical amount owed at year end£51,6852,318 accounts£49,675
Typical number of employees32,328 accounts3

What this means if you’re starting one

Cash is tight in this trade

At year end the typical convenience store company in London holds £12,319 in cash and owes £51,685; that cash figure is lower than 73% of UK industries.

Typical operators end the year holding less cash than they owe, so there is little slack if takings dip or a big bill lands early.

London has fewer of these businesses than most places

Convenience store companies are 0.39% of companies registered in London, against 0.67% UK-wide (0.6× the national share).

That could be a gap or a sign of weak demand. The register cannot tell which.

More of these companies are closing than in most trades

12% of convenience store companies in London are currently being struck off, against 6.9% of all companies there. Nationally that rate is higher than 84% of UK industries.

Closures run high here. It is a churn signal, not a survival rate, but it means the common failure points are worth learning before you start.

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What these figures can’t tell you

Companies are counted where their registered office is, which may be an accountant or a home address rather than a shop. Sole traders and partnerships are not on the register, and electronically filed accounts cover roughly 60–75% of accounts filed each year. The figures describe companies that exist; they cannot prove demand for your idea or predict whether it will work. How the figures are built.

Convenience store in other places

Other businesses in London

All business benchmarks in London