Closure date is confirmed for Woolworths in Minehead

ADMINISTRATORS overseeing the winding-up of the Woolworths chain of stores have confirmed that the Minehead branch will be among the last to close.
Deloitte has published individual dates for the final closure of each of the 807 stores nationwide
Up to 200 are due to close as early of December 27, and all of the remainder will be shut by January 5 at the latest.
The Minehead store, in The Avenue, is among those which will remain trading until January 5.
A countdown poster showing the remaining number of trading days for the store is on display in the shop window.
Woolworths has traded in Minehead since 1937 and the branch employs nearly 30 staff, most of them part-time and some of whom have worked in the store for more than 20 years.
The staff are due to be kept on for an additional three days after the closure before their jobs come to an end along with the other 30,000 Woolworths employees.
Woolworths went into administration in November with debts of £385 million and Deloitte has been unable to find a buyer for the group, although expressions of interest have been made for parts of it.
It is likely that up to 300 of the stores will be reopened by other retailers which want to buy the leases of certain locations, but there has been no confirmation of the future of the Minehead site.
Deloitte partner Neville Kahn said it was unclear how much of the company’s debt would be paid, but it was ‘clear the creditors and suppliers will not get paid in full’.
Woolworths’ staff will be entitled to compensation under the statutory redundancy payment scheme.
Ironically, Woolworths has been enjoying record sales in the past few days as bargain hunters flock to the stores to take advantage of the firm’s biggest ever sale with discounts of up to 50 per cent on offer.
Some trade press reports have suggested former Woolworths chief executive Sir Geoff Mulcahy could be talking with the company’s largest shareholder, Ardeshir Naghshineh, about a last-minute rescue package for the group.
Sir Geoff was earlier critical of the way Deloittehad handled Woolworths, describing it as ‘disgraceful’.
It was also suggest Mr Naghshineh had approached the Government about the possibility of bailout funding to save Woolworths.
The shopworkers’ union Usdaw has also criticised Deloitte’s decision to close all the stores and make staff redundant without allowing them an opportunity to transfer to any news owners who may purchase individual store leases.

EXCLUSIVE: Shock at sudden job losses 'to protect newspaper profits'

A ROUND of job losses in the past week has shocked staff at the larger of West Somerset’s two paid-for weekly newspapers.
The Newsquest-owned Somerset County Gazette has made redundancies in every department to cut costs following dramatic falls in advertising revenue.
The highest profile victim was the newspaper’s deputy editor Bob Drayton, who had worked for the company for most of the past 40 years.
Mr Drayton, who lives in Ilminster, received the MBE in the Queen’s 2003 New Year Honours List for his services to the newspaper industry and his local communities of Chard and Ilminster.
He began his career as a reporter on the Chard and Ilminster News, one of the Gazette group’s titles, and went on to be editor of the newspaper before taking over as deputy group editor in Taunton in 1987.
Another high profile executive to lose his job was popular distribution manager Courtenay Popple, who had been with the Gazette since it acquired the Star series of newspapers in the late 1980s.
The Post understands Mr Popple was told at short notice to clear his desk on Friday of last week and was not even allowed to tell fellow staff that his job had been axed.
One junior reporter on the paper also left voluntarily during the week, and the Gazette is said to be looking to cut one more from its reporting staff.
Mr Drayton headed a team of nine sub-editors - the people who put the editorial content on to the news pages and write the headlines and lay out the pages - and two more are expected to be axed, leaving a skeleton staff of just six in the department.
Earlier in the year, the Gazette shed many of its sales staff and also merged responsibility for circulation with the role of the paper’s editor Ken Bird.
Newsquest has also cut more than 200 editorial jobs since June at its papers across the length and breadth of the country and in Wales and Scotland.
The job losses have affected everybody from senior management and editors to editorial assistants and librarians.
Other cost cutting measures adopted by the Canadian-owned group include closing a £17 million printing plant, shutting some of its weekly newspapers, closing district offices, scrapping some editions of daily newspapers, merging the sub-editing departments of different newspapers, imposing a pay freeze, and non-replacement for vacancies.
A common tactic has been to hand out redundancy notices to large numbers of staff and to then ask them to reapply for fewer vacancies.
Across the world, Canadian owners Gannet has been making thousands of job cuts.
National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear said journalists and editorial standards at Newsquest newspapers such as the County Gazette were being sacrificed to protect the owner’s profits.
Mr Dear said: “The companies are not unprofitable and many major analysts expect them to remain so in to the future, so the slash and burn is not about saving an industry but about maintaining artificially high profit levels.
“Owners can no longer expect to fleece the industry to the tune of 30 per cent-plus, they are going to have to accept lower profit margins.
“If they will not, they should get out and let people who care about newspapers’ public service role take over.
“Instead of greater investment in quality online content, more localised coverage, and strengthened editorial teams, for years the vast profits of local newspapers have been largely shovelled into shareholders’ pockets, directors’ pay rises, and executive pension pots, amid reckless borrowing and poor investment decisions.
“Now, the very people who plunged the industry into this crisis by demanding such excessive profits believe the solution is to axe journalists and freeze pay.
“It is a false economy to put the ability to deliver scoops, quality content, and strong local coverage in jeopardy.
“Local newspapers in print and online remain viable and profitable businesses. We cannot stand by and see this profiteering destroy our industry.”
The union has also urged newspaper editors to work alongside their journalists to defend their editorial independence and integrity.
In an unprecedented move, the NUJ is planning a ‘jobs summit’ to co-ordinate action across more sections of the newspaper industry, which will be held in London on January 24.
More information about the NUJ summit can be obtained by emailing campaigns@nuj.org.uk.

Woolworths asked to protect Minehead jobs over Christmas

WOOLWORTHS was reported this evening to be going into administration, putting 30,000 jobs under threat in more than 800 stores, including in Minehead.
Accountancy consultants Deloitte was being appointed as administrators to the company, which would have celebrated its centenary in 2009.
A spokeswoman said Minehead and the other stores would remain open and keep trading for the time being.
Money had been ring-fenced to ensure staff would be paid as normal on Friday.
It was understood that Woolworths had been asked to do what it could to protect its pension fund, and to keep the stores open if possible during over Christmas.
Woolworths had £385 million of debt and had been in ongoing discussions with its two main bankers.
Usdaw, the shopworkers’ union, called the collapse of Woolworths ‘devastating for staff’.
A spokesman said: “We were hopeful that a last minute deal would be done and will want to meet with the administrators as soon as possible.”