News

« Headlines

Woolies on its knees

19.06.08

Is Woolies finished? That is the question posed by the Guardian, following the departure of its chief executive, yesterday. "Time was when Woolworths was at the centre of every high street. Shoppers who wanted anything from a bag of sweets to a 7in single could head into town and come back satisfied. That, as they said, was the wonder of Woolies. The surprise today is that it still exists."

Financially, the business is on its knees, says the newspaper, but with the  departure of Trevor Bish-Jones, its bigger problem now is convincing someone else to take what most retailers rate as the "job from hell".



Guardian

Retail Financial Bertrams EUK woolies woolworths Trevor Bish-Jones

Add comment

By posting on this website you agree to the Bookseller Comments Policy. Comments go direct to live, please be relevant, brief and definitely not abusive. Report any "unsuitable" comments by clicking the links.

Name

Comment

Email

Comments on this article

By JULIAN RIVERS

There is a big difference between Woolworth retail which understandably most people think of as Woolies and the emerging and profitable less visible areas . Woolworth shareholders are impatient for a major tranformation of the Group moving away from retail, which is tired, and concentrating on distribution of goods and content , hence the very successful acquisition of Bertrams into Entertainment U.K. Also the 40% holding in 2 Entertain a JVC in a film and music distributor with B.B.C. probably worth c£200m The £123m debt at last year end is probably accelerating the need for a break up during the credit crunch , and I suspect that Bish Jones was resistant to that at this time , wanting the retail to strenghten further first . I think Woolies is a long way of being finished , it is in the process of reforming in a much more profitable area. [A bit like Whitbread leaving brewing and reforming as Premier Lodge value hotels , pubs and club owners ] .

19 Jun 08 09:40

Unsuitable?

See Also