Prices slashed in Woolies sale as Dragon pulls out of rescue bid

MILLIONAIRE entrepreneur Theo Paphitis has pulled out of a possible deal which could have saved the jobs of employees of the Minehead branch of Woolworths.
The troubled retailer went into administration last week with debts of £385 million and receivers Deloitte was immediately approached with several inquiries about purchasing the chain.
Mr Paphitis, a star of the BBC Dragon’s Den television programme, was said to be interested in bidding for some of the more profitable Woolies stores and maintaining the Woolworths brand.
However, the Dragon has now pulled out and said in a statement: “Unfortunately, the constituent parts of Woolworths are more valuable than the whole.
“The administrators have a difficult job to do and I appreciate they need to get the highest cash value for the business.
“I hope that an alternative proposal succeeds in securing the future for the many Woolworths employees involved.”
Mr Paphitis has previously revived troubled brands such as La Senza and the stationary chain Rymans.
His withdrawal leaves the future of 30,000 Woolworths jobs in doubt, although Deloitte said the stores would continue throughout the Christmas period and money had been ring fenced to pay salaries.
It is now expected that most of the stores will be sold in small groups to a number of different bidders.
The deadline for bids for single or small groups of stores was 4 pm on Wednesday.
Supermarket firms Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, the Co-op, and discount chain Poundland were all said to be interested in some of Woolworths’ prime high street locations.
The largest shareholder in Woolworths, Ardeshir Naghshineh, was also reported to be preparing a bid for the company.
Woolworths will tomorrow start its ‘biggest ever’ sale in an effort to shift large volumes of stock, slashing prices by up to 50 per cent across its product range.
Deloitte partner Neville Kahn said: “We anticipate increased footfall in the stores and have hired additional staff to cope with increased demand.
“Additional goods have been moved to all stores and further stock will be added in the coming days.”
Woolworths Group, which has a 40 per cent stake in 2Entertain, a joint publishing venture with the BBC, is also likely to be placed into administration.

More public consultation on new supermarket for Minehead

A NEW public consultation exercise is to be carried out to again test residents’ views on the future use of Minehead’s Vulcan Road car park (pictured).
The move comes as Independent councillors on West Somerset Council look for justification for backing out of an agreement for a supermarket and other units to be built on the site.
The Independents were elected on the back of a Direct-orchestrated campaign to stop shoppers in West Somerset being given greater choice of supermarket shopping.
Now, despite previous consultation showing people wanted Vulcan Road to include a supermarket - preferably ASDA - councillors have demanded development partner Chelverton Developments Ltd should further research the public’s views on six possible options for the site.
The consultation will be carried out by independent specialists, Consensus, which is owned by former Minehead student Mark Crosby.
Mr Crosby said: “Our task is to provide local stakeholders groups and the wider community with an opportunity to examine each proposal and then record their views.
“The feedback from the consultation will then be collated in a statement of community involvement and submitted to the council for their scrutiny and deliberation.
“It will be for them to determine which option, if any, best meets the future needs of the community.”
The exhibition will be open to the public at the former Ceci fashion shop in The Parade, Minehead, from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, December 1, and from 10 am to 1 pm the following day, Sunday, December 2, and again from 10 am to 5 pm on Friday, December 7, to coincide with the farmers’ market in the town centre.
Four of the options involve Tesco, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, or ASDA, each of which also includes an hotel.
A fifth option is for a smaller scheme of mixed retail and employment units.
All of the options contain some affordable housing.
There is also a ‘none of the above’ option.
All options will be displayed with a plan showing how the development would be laid out, together with an indication of the amount of money that each proposal would generate for the council.
Mr Crosby said: “I believe people want to be provided with accurate and straight-forward information about each option in order that they are able to make a properly informed decision.”
Consensus is also meeting with representatives of Direct, Minehead Chamber of Commerce – which is run by ex-Direct chairman Graham Sizer, Minehead Town Council, West Somerset Railway, and the West Somerset Community College.