Buyers line up for chance to pick up Woolworths
Potential buyers line up to pick up the pieces of the stricken high street retailer Woolworths
Deloitte,
appointed administrator of the collapsed high street retailer Woolworths, had
received interest from ‘a number of parties’ for both the retail arm and the
firm’s EUK wholesaling operation in the past 24 hours.
The collapse of Woolworths has left the future of the retailer’s 30,000 staff
uncertain, but Dan Butters, Deloitte’s reorganisation services partner, said
the administrator was working hard to ‘ensure that any sale of the business, in
whole or part, will preserve jobs’.
Hilco, the
restructuring specialist, which failed in its bid to buy Woolworths’ stores for
£1 and assume a major share of its £385m borrowing facility, has been appointed
by Deloitte as an agent to help manage the retail arm,
The
Press Association reports.
But the collapse also sparked fears of a price war on an already-beleaguered
high street, with administrators potentially slashing prices to generate cash
for creditors and offload unsold stock.
Further reading:
Woolworths Enters Administration [Bargains Galore?]