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Business News HMV Timeline Retail
Woolies to close in new year
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 18 December 2008
Stock pile your pick n mix, because there’s a very high chance Woolworths will be no more as of 5 Jan. Administrators for the faltering retailer have announced that if no buyer can be found by that date they will have to close down the whole company, leading to the closure of 800 plus stores and the loss of 27,000 jobs.
Deloitte, who have been looking for a buyer for the retail chain and its CD/DVD distribution company eUK since they went into administration last month, have said they are still talking to some parties who are interested in acquiring parts of the Woolies empire, but that they have nevertheless put a shutdown plan into operation in case no deals can be done.
Stores are likely to start closing from 27 Dec, with the whole chain shut down by the 5 Jan deal deadline. Yesterday’s announcement regarding the Woolworths retail business follows the announcement last week that no buyer had been found for distribution business eUK leading to its closure.
Although the future of Woolies has been insecure for sometime, its closure is still a landmark in the history of British music retail. Woolworths was once the biggest music seller on the high street, and even as it started to lose market share to specialist music retailers like HMV and the Virgin Megastore, and the supermarkets, it still played an important role in the sector by providing many of those new and growing competitors through eUK.
