Guardian UK: Thousands of Woolworths staff face sack in Christmas week

[marmar]

Thousands of Woolworths staff face sack in Christmas week
• Retailer may stay open until stocks run out
• Currys group adds to gloom with £30m loss

Julia Finch, City editor
The Guardian, Friday November 28 2008


Thousands of Woolworths staff are likely to lose their jobs in Christmas week if the accountants now running the store chain cannot find a buyer for the business within the next four weeks.

Deloittes, which has been formally appointed administrator to the collapsed retailer, said yesterday it hoped to keep the 800 stores open and the staff paid until Christmas, in order to keep cash coming in and shift stock at what should be the chain's busiest time of the year. But there is no promise of jobs for the 25,000 shop staff after that date. New deliveries from suppliers are likely to cease straight away and the shelves will gradually empty.

Staff at Woolworths' headquarters in central London are likely to be the first to go, possibly in the coming days.

Yesterday Gordon Brown said the government would try to help staff. The prime minister said: "The important thing is in the long run that employees in this company - where the businesses and the shops are not going to stay open in the longer term - can get other jobs quickly." He promised to "move in immediately to give advice to employees".

A spokesman for Woolworths' administrators said they would be looking for a "suitable" buyer for the business, or for large parts of it in order to repay creditors, and had received a lot of inquiries. Woolworths owes £385m to lenders led by GMAC and Burdale. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/28/woolworths-retail-redundancy-administration-christmas

[JI7]

1. is this the same Woolworth's that use to be in the United States ?

[marmar]

2. I think so.....

n/t

[Bozita]

3. Yes, the same.

The Guardian published an article last week describing the history of the company and the financial problems it was facing.

link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/23/woolworths-shopping-business

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. I had no idea they still existed anywhere. Very sorry for those workers. :^(

[AnnieBW]

5. They're all over the place in Australia

But I think that they're mostly a supermarket, not what we know as Woolworth's.

[charlie]

6. The Australian chain

purchased the right to use the name, but otherwise have no connection to the US or British Woolworth's.