Woolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books. The 800-branch Woolworths chain was the main enterprise of the group, selling many goods and having its own LadyBird children's clothing ranges, Chad Valley toys and the WorthIt! value ranges. The chain was the UK's leading supplier of Candyking "pick 'n' mix" sweets. It was also sometimes referred to as "Woolies" by the UK media and the general public.
On 26 November 2008, the trading of shares in Woolworths Group plc was suspended and the Woolworths and Entertainment UK subsidiaries entered administration. Woolworths Group plc also entered administration on 27 January 2009. The administrators Deloitte & Touche closed all 807 Woolworths stores between 27 December 2008 and 6 January 2009 resulting in 27,000 job losses.
On 2 February 2009 it was announced that the Shop Direct Group had purchased the Woolworths and Ladybird names and these would survive as a brand within the internet based shopping company.
History
The English branch of the originally Pennsylvania-founded Woolworths stores, F W Woolworth & Co, Ltd was founded by Frank Woolworth in Liverpool, England on 5 November 1909 primarily due to Frank Woolworth's ancestry linking to Wooley, Cambridgeshire — Frank himself claiming he had traced his ancestry through the Founding Fathers of the district to a small farm in middle-England. When Frank eventually travelled to England in 1890, he docked in Liverpool and travelled by train to Stoke on Trent for the purchase of china and glassware for Woolworth's ranges, but also noted his love of England in his diary and his aspirations for bringing the Woolworth name to England;
I believe that a good penny and sixpence store, run by a live Yankee, would be a sensation here.
Frank Woolworth
When at a Stoke on Trent railway station, Frank Woolworth met a young freight clerk, William Lawrence Stephenson who impressed Woolworth with his "can-do attitude" and was invited several years later at the time of conception for the British "F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd", to meet with Frank Woolworth again, who dispatched a carriage and invitation to his hotel room in London. When Stephenson arrived to meet with Woolworth, he was offered the job as director of the new company, which he accepted.
Administration
From September 2008 the world entered into a severe financial crisis with decreasing availability of credit and reduced consumer spending.
On 19 November 2008, The Times reported that the Woolworths' retail business was a target for restructuring specialist Hilco, who would buy the retail arm for a nominal £1; this was confirmed the same day. This deal would have left Woolworths Group with its profitable distribution and publishing businesses and a reduced debt load.
The group's banks, GMAC and Burdale, rejected the deal and recalled their loans, forcing the group to place the retail business and Entertainment UK into administration. On 26 November 2008, the trading of shares in Woolworths Group plc was suspended. Neville Kahn, Dan Butters and Nick Dargan of Deloitte LLP were appointed joint administrators. When the company entered administration it had a debt of £385 million. The administrators announced that they were aiming to keep the company as a going concern over the crucial Christmas period, although analysts feared that any heavy discounting would create a domino effect and drag down other high street retailers. Deloitte later announced they had received "substantial interest" in Woolworths.
When news about Woolworths being placed into administration became widely publicised, National Lottery operator Camelot Group immediately suspended Woolworths from selling their lottery tickets and scratch cards, as well as preventing claimants from redeeming prizes at the stores.
On 19 January 2009, the parent company, Woolworths Group, announced its intention to also enter administration, as it can no longer pay its debts. The application was heard by the High Court on 27 January, and Woolworths Group plc entered administration. By April 2009 Woolworths Group plc's website no longer existed.
Closing-down process
On 5 December, Woolworths both recorded their greatest single day takings of £27 million, and axed 450 head office and support staff jobs. A closing-down sale started on 11 December.
On 17 December 2008, administrators announced that all 807 Woolworths stores would close by 5 January 2009 (later changed to 6 January), with 27,000 job losses. Deloitte's Neville Kahn also said that it was unclear how much of Woolworths' debt would be paid. In the last few days of trading discounts of up to 90% were offered, and a number of stores sold all of their stock, many selling all of their fixtures and fittings too.
The former chief executive of Kingfisher, Woolworths' former parent company, and Ardeshir Naghshineh, a current shareholder of Woolworths, have criticised the closures.
The stores were closed in phases, and the final two closing days were moved back a day to try to sell more of the remaining stock and to ease logistics of closing.
207 stores closed on 27 December 2008
37 closed on 29 December
164 closed on 30 December
200 closed on 3 January 2009
remaining stores (approximately 200) closed on 6 January 2009
Wooly and Worth
Between 2004 and 2008, Woolworths adverts featured their own mascots, 'Wooly' the sheep and 'Worth' the sheepdog. They appeared in many adverts, including Woolworths WorthIt! adverts. In 2009, they were due to reappear in a half hour comedy special Wooly And Worth's Christmas Message, in which they reveal that they have been homeless since the closure of Woolworths. Scenes were filmed of the pair in a Job Centre and trying to secure and advertising contract with a number of other stores. The film, written and directed by radio presenter and writer Steve Oliver has been held up due to legal complications. As Mr Oliver says "It isn't really Christmas without Woolworths.
Music
Woolworths, for many years, was a leader in the UK music industry. In the 1950s and well into the 1960s, Woolworths issued recordings available only via their stores on their own label Embassy Records, produced and manufactured by Oriole Records. These releases were double-sided singles featuring two cover versions of current hit singles sold at a much cheaper price. This venture was very successful at the time, but was eventually killed off when other record companies started to issue compilation albums. However, Woolworths remained in the music business selling a wide range of singles and albums, and remained the UK's Number 1 music retailer well into the 1990s. Even successful nationwide music specialists stores such as Virgin Megastore and HMV did not overtake Woolworths during this time. They later suffered from strong competition in this field from the large supermarket chains Tesco and Asda.
Entertainment UK
Entertainment UK (EUK) was founded, originally as Record Merchandisers Limited in 1966 by EMI Records, to distribute music to non-specialist retailers, and subsequently became a joint venture between a number of record companies. Woolworths became Entertainment UK's largest customer and in 1986 Record Merchandisers Limited was acquired by the Kingfisher Group. In 1988, Record Merchandisers Limited changed its name to Entertainment UK (EUK).
EUK became the property of Woolworths Group plc after the demerger from parent company, the Kingfisher Group, in 2001. In 2006, the Woolworths Group acquired Total Home Entertainment Distribution Limited (THE) to form part of Entertainment UK (EUK) division. In November 2007 EUK acquired Bertram Books, a major book wholesaler and distributor.
EUK was the main supplier of Zavvi under an exclusive supply deal. As a result of EUK entering into administration, on the 24 December the music retailer was also forced into administration as it was unable to source stock on favourable terms direct from suppliers. Zavvi later closed entirely.
Streets Online logo
Streets Online, founded in 1996 by Stephen Cole, was one of the pioneers of online retailing in the UK. Originally the name behind the online bookseller Alphabetstreet and music site Audiostreet, 85% of the company was bought out by the Kingfisher Group in 2000 for £15.7 million, and then became part of the Woolworths Group with its demerger in 2001. It then became responsible for the web operations of MVC and Tesco. When Kingfisher bought this 85%, the remaining 15% was owned by Sky New Media Ventures (part of BSkyB). In 2003 the company headquarters was moved to the EUK site in Hayes.
2 Entertain
2 Entertain is a joint-venture company combining the former video and music publishing and TV/video production businesses of the Woolworths Group subsidiary, VCI, with the video publishing business of BBC Worldwide. After negotiations with Woolworth Group's administrators, BBC Worldwide has since purchased Woolworths stake in 2entertain, and now is the sole owner of the company.
Brands
Chad Valley was launched in 1991 to create an own label range of merchandise. The Chad Valley brand name, which has been in existence since 1860, is used on a range of toys and games suitable for children under 8 years old. Home Retail Group, the parent company of Argos and Homebase, purchased the brand for £5 million on 20 January 2009.Chad Valley is now exclusively in the Argos catalogue starting Autumn/Winter 2009.
Embassy Records
Main article: Embassy Records
Embassy Records was a series of 45 RPM budget records sold in Woolworths in a label jointly owned by Woolworths and Oriole Records.
Ladybird (clothing)
Ladybird is a brand of children's wear for children aged 0–10 years which was sold exclusively in Woolworths stores. Before the collapse of the Woolworths chain it was ranked third overall in the childrenswear market, with a market share of 5%. Woolworths purchased rights to the Ladybird brand in 1984, purchasing it outright from Coats Viyella in 2001. The brand has a history which dates back to a trading partnership beginning in 1934 between the original firm Adolf Pasold & Son and Woolworths. On 1 February 2009, Shop Direct purchased the brand and whole rights from the administrators.
Winfield
The Winfield brand was launched by Woolworths in 1963 and continued until the 1980s. Goods sold under the brand included household cleaners, groceries, kitchenware, perfumes and other ranges e.g. fishing tackle.
WorthIt!
The WorthIt! brand was a value range released by Woolworths in 2007. The first advertising campaign for the brand which first aired on 15 June 2007 introduced the characters of Worth the dog and Wooly the sheep. Further advertising campaigns featured celebrities such as Rolf Harris, Jackie Chan and Kelly Osbourne. The brand covered a wide variety of products including confectionery, electricals, alcohol, jewellery, perfumes and clothing.
At the time of the administration of Woolworths Plc, there was a pending trademark application for the Worthit brand, and this was acquired by Shop Direct. However, registered trademark status was subsequently refused.
In popular culture
Woolworths is referred to in the 1979 song "Low Budget" by The Kinks, from their album Low Budget: "I'm shopping at Woolworths and low discount stores.
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