It was reported in the Times that Shop Direct Group could move Woolworths back onto the high street as a 200-store chain. Shop Direct’s owners Sir Fredrick Barclay and Sir David Barclay acquired the Woolworths’ name from administrators in February and set it up as an online store. It said it would look for franchisees rather than run its own stores. Shop Direct’s chief executive Mark Newton-Jones says: “In the new year, we will consider approaches from interested third parties. We believe it could be a successful chain of up to 200 stores, supported by the buying power of the Shop Direct Group.” The news comes almost exactly a year after Woolworths collapsed with the closure of 800 shops.
