I thought Wellworths closed down ….. Woolworths rebranding as Wellworths

Posted: April 2, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Do something Now is good, Interesting, Retail, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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If you grew up in Northern Ireland then you might be a bit confused at the news recently of an ex-woolworths store manager in England who rather than close her shop chose to re-brand it and set up her own business Wellworths ….

Wait a minute, I know this name ………… I grew up shopping in Wellworths ! For those of you that are slighty confused by what I am harping on about.

Wellworths (FA Wellworth & Co. Ltd.) was a supermarket owned by the Fitzwilton Group trading in Northern Ireland until 1997. Along with Stewarts/Crazy Prices it was one of the two main supermarkets in Northern Ireland until English-based retailers moved into the marketplace – Stewarts/Crazy Prices was acquired by Tesco while Sainsbury’s built nine new stores.

Wellworths was split in two. Smaller stores were wholly acquired by the Musgrave Group in 1997 and traded as Wellworths-Supervalu for a time. The Wellworths name was eventually dropped and these stores now trade as ‘Supervalu‘, part of an all-Ireland chain.

Larger Wellworths stores were acquired by Safeway Stores (Ireland), a joint venture between the Fitzwilton Group and Safeway. They operated from 1997 to 2005 under the Safeway name.

In March 2004, Safeway Stores (Ireland) was acquired by Morrisons when Morrisons bought Safeway. The Northern Ireland stores were not part of Morrisons’ long-term strategy and traded under the Morrison name for a limited time. Despite continuing to trade as Safeway, own-brand products and carrier bags were supplied by Morrisons. Safeway Stores (Ireland) was acquired by Asda in 2005 and now operates under the Asda name.

I have found memories of visiting Wellworths as a child and seeing someone in England opening a store with the same name brought back found memories.

But why has she done it ? Woolworth failed in a blaze of glory !! Well yes it did because nationally the business model did not work, but it Dorchester – there is no direct competitors so this store always turned a profit.  Claire Robertson the ex store manager and new owner knows the staff and knows what the locals want, she is a general retailer like the old general stores of day’s gone by.

She is and this is what retailing is all about, good luck to her !

Woolworths to Close on Jan 5th

Posted: December 18, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Government, Interesting, Retail | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Following on from recent posts regarding the future of Woolworths here and here.  It has been confirmed that the end is approaching and attempts to rescue the failing brand have hopelessly fallen apart.

The chain is close is final store on January 5th, most will close before this when stock runs out and all 27,000 staff will be laid off.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, said last night that Woolworths’ fate provided a warning to other long-established high street names.

He said it was a “company that didn’t march forward with the times, didn’t change with the times in the way you need to in an increasingly competitive marketplace”.

Not very helpful really, as the government has bailed out nearly all the UK Banks and are now in discussions once more with British car makers yet has seemingly turned its back on British retailing giants and the public.

Meanwhile Shop-floor management and staff have slammed the handling off the administration process, reporting that they have been ‘kept in the dark’ and been reliant on news programs to find out and try to piece together the future of the business and their jobs.

My heart goes out to the loyal workforce of Woolworths, their [Woolworths] staff retention is [was] one of the best on the high street, unfortunately poor management at top level has seen their [the staff’s] loyalty worthless.

My only hope now for staff is that the new retailers moving into the units will approach Woolworths staff before going to the recruitment markets.

Administrators appointed at Zavvi

Posted: December 12, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Belfast, Interesting, Retail | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments

It has become apparent that nearly a third of Woolworths (EUK) debt, is owed to them by Zavvi.  I have spoken before about how they may be the next giant to fall on the back of the Woolworths collapse.

Deloitte the administrators for Woolworths and desperately trying to return the books back to black and have annonced on Wednesday that all staff will receive their last pay check on Christmas eve.

Its time to call in the debts……… £107 Million is owed to Entertainment UK (woolworths)[by Zavvi] and Deloitte are very keen to get this back, as i’m sure you can imagine, so they have appointed Ernst and Young to have a polite word with Zavvi to clear the debt, but with Zavvi struggling with cash flow and having to go cap in hand back to Richard Branson for 60 days worth of cash flow.  £107Million could be hard to find.

Ernst and Young and ready and waiting to swoop on Zavvi, on Woolworths behalf because if Zavvi do go under its first come, first served when it comes to debt.  EUK is also believed to be owed around £25Million from Tesco and J Sainburys.

IF [Zavvi] Can re-stock quickly and get trading again, they might be in with a fighting chance, but if not January could be a tough month for the Managers who bought out Richard Branson, and a hard pill to swallow for Branson too not only did he lend his managers the cash to buy it [Virgin Megastores, now Zavvi] from him, and 60 days worth of cash but Virgin Megastores were Bransons first real business turning him into the man he is today.  Business is business but i’m not sure he would want his baby to die this way.

Could Zavvi be the next retail giant to fall ?

Posted: December 11, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Interesting, Retail | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Woolsworths trouble is not just an internal problem, Entertainment UK (A company I did some work for whilst studying) are owed by Woolworths and are Zavvi’s main supplier.

Zavvi is the new brand for Virgin Megastore’s, bought from Richard Branson by a management and VC team when Branson was looking out of the retail sector.  Management buy outs are funny old things, they generally don’t work out well.  Directors may be good at running other people’s businesses but when it comes to running thier own chequebook, things change, this I have seen first hand.

In this case Zavvi has used the massise buying power of Woolworths and Entertainment UK in order to keep retail prices competitive but in putting all their eggs (or most of them) in one basket its proving to be a very bad decision.

Last week Zavvi had to close its online business, days before the busiest online buying week of the year, stores are reportatly running extremly low on stock as the company tries to find a new supplier to re-stock the stores.

What does this mean?  well no stock, no sales, no cash! its simple.

A lot of retailers will happily run 11 months of the year at a loss or a marginal breakeven relying on December and Early Jan sales to prop up the balance sheet and turn a profit.

This Christmas will prove difficult for Zavvi and with banks not keen to let big businesses run up overdrafts this could prove to be fatal for the successful chain.

Is this the end for Retail Giant, Woolworths ?

Posted: December 11, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Do something Now is good, Retail | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

The recession may not have caused the company to fall into administration but it is certainly looking like it is going to finish it off….

Administrations have failed to secure a buyer for the group, I don’t think this would have happened a few years ago, the slow down of readily available cash have meant that VCs and Investment groups simply don’t have the cash to buy a company like it, and I think it is worth buying.

The adminisrators will now have to pick off the good parts of the group to try and clear the £385Million + debt, starting with the sale of all stock over the coming days to Christmas one the stock has been sold the staff will no doubt be jobless and the stores one by one closed down.

Other retailers, like Zavvi (The management buy out led group that bought Virigin Music Retail) are now starting to feel the pinch as they where dependant of Woolworths hugh buying power as their main supplier.  So could Zavvi be the next to fall ?  It is not looking good for the business, Problems buying stock, Website crashing on the busist online sale’s day. Only time will tell.

But for woolworths, for me it will a brand that is missed.  I spent many a saturday afternoon fighting with my Father over what was an exceptable ‘pick in mix’ weight !

Alan in Belfast also writes today on how he will miss the brand, he says …..

Where else could you get a cheap tool, buy a cheap bulb, find a cheap tea pot, and rot your teeth on a budget. Now you need to go to four different shops to do all those things.

As I said before, the face of retail is changing and only time will tell if it is for the better…

Woolworths Collapse not the fault of recession

Posted: November 29, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Northern Ireland | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments

Retailing giant Woolworths this week called in the administrators as they could not see a way forward for the business.

The country is hitting hard times at present and retail is one of worst hit sectors with public spending well down on last year as the recession and credit crunch takes it toll.  However the collapse of woolworths should not be confused with the recession, sure it didn’t help but this collapse is down to nothing more than poor product buying and bad management.

The truth is that Woolworths have been in trouble for over 5 years, customers have no real reason to go into their stores anyone.  Back in the day, Woolworths had its place on the highstreet, you went to the Butchers, Fruit and veg man etc and Woolworths for everything else, gardening tools, sweets, CDs, Pens etc etc etc but with the raise of companies like Tesco and Sainsbury you can get all of this stuff along with your weekly shopping and if searching for a sole item in town like a CD you would have been more likely to go to a specialist store such as HMV.

All is not lost though, Woolworths in the 80s spend an absolute fortune researching and buying the best locations on the high street, these sites are now worth a fair bit of cash, even in todays climate.

The administraters will now seek to sell of the valable parts of the business, the retail stores for me are the most valauble assets, selling the 800 odd lease agreements to big retailers could go a long way towards clearing the £350+ Million debt the company has wracked up.

In other news this week, MFI have had to pull the plug and are currently selling off stock and knock down prices to clear the stores.

I would say by the end of 2010 we will be looking at a very different high street in many ways, big companies are not safe at present with hugh outgoings and warehouses full of cash tied up in stock.

It really is time for a small local business to thrive, they can make changes quickly to save the future of the business and apply changes that are suitable to their own town.