Shop Direct set to re-launch Woolworths with online store

by Tony McConville. Published Tue 03 Feb 2009 09:39

Mark Newton-Jones listening to a pitch

Home shopping group Shop Direct are appealing to customers to help decide what it should stock in its new Woolworths online store.

Speke-based Shop Direct yesterday announced it was buying the Woolworths name from the stricken companies administrators and said it would relaunch it as an online store this summer.

The deal comes just days after Shop Direct, whose online and catalogue brands include Littlewoods and Kays, announced it was axing more than 1,000 jobs with the closure of its Crosby call centre.

The company says the Woolworths deal will only create a 'limited' number of jobs.

Woolworths was forced into administration late last year with plunging sales and mounting debts, costing 27,000 jobs. The last of its 807 stores closed in January.

Shop Direct says the Woolworths brand is effectively 'coming home' as the collapsed chain opened its first UK store in Liverpool in 1909.

Chief executive Mark Newton-Jones said: "We are delighted to be relaunching the Woolworths name online.

"Woolworths is a much-loved brand that engenders huge affection among British consumers and is an important part of the country's retail heritage.

"In what will be Woolworths' 100th year, we are proud to be reviving the brand for future generations.

"Also in a pleasant twist of fate, Woolworths is effectively coming home becuase the original store was opened in Liverpool."