Wooly proposition
Venerable UK high street brand Woolworths has been plucked from the ignominy of administration by Shop Direct, which also owns brands like Littlewoods and is owned by the Barclay brothers, who also own the Telegraph newspaper.
Shop Direct plans to open www.woolworths.co.uk this summer with full Woolies branding, as well as that of childrenswear brand Ladybird.
It looks like it's going to try to replicate the Woolies experience (whatever that might be) online, but Shop Direct doesn't seem to have acquired much more than the right to use the brand. It has not acquired any interest in Entertainment UK, the games, music and DVD distributor that was owned by Woolworths group.
Shop Direct is in the middle of a process of redefining itself as an online, as opposed to mail-order company. Part of this process involved announcing the redundancy of around ten percent of its work force last week.
Chief Executive of Shop Direct, Mark Newton-Jones, said: "This is great news and we are confident that Woolworths, as an online brand, will once again prosper and, quite rightly, stay at the heart of British retailing."
The impression that this was a bit of an impulse purchase by Shop Direct was reinforced by Newton-Jones saying: "We ask that Woolworths customers come online and register with us to let us know what they would like to see from the exciting new woolworths.co.uk."
In other words: tell us what to do with it. The site's not too exciting right now, however, as it's closed for maintenance.
