Woolworths stores close for the last time
Today we have seen 200 Woolworths stores close forever as the wind-down of one of the U.K.'s best known retail chains continues at pace. Just under one quarter of the overall group has now been closed with the final 600 stores set to close over the next two weeks. This marks a sad day for the UK retail sector with one of the U.K.'s oldest retail businesses set to disappear forever. While debts of over £300 million finally sealed the fate of the group there is anger at the way the business has been managed over the last decade at a time when UK retail has moved with the times but Woolworths appears to be stuck in the dark ages.
Unfortunately the demise of Woolworths is set to be repeated numerous times across the UK high street over the next few months. There is concern that many supporting banks have been waiting until after the Christmas and New Year sales in order to improve cash flow and take as much back from businesses before withdrawing their support. The next few weeks will see many shocks and surprises from the UK high street as well as a sharp dip in consumer spending.
Share this..
Related stories
Factory gate spike sparks inflation fears
Britain's manufacturing sector saw its annual output prices rise by an unexpectedly high 2.7 per cent in March, government figures show.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed today that the month-on-month output price jump was 0.6 per cent, caused mainly by oil price rises and the cost of other manufactured products. Input prices, which had fallen by 1.2 per cent in February, rose to 0....
Read MoreNational Express releases profits warning
Troubled transport group National Express has today issued a profits warning and confirmed that profits will be slightly below analyst forecasts and the cost of financing the company's debt has increased over the last few months. The company confirmed that trading "remained difficult" in the three months to September and the takeover approach by CVC Capital Partners created a delay in refinancing...
Read MoreAsda leading the away with cut in petrol price
As we covered in one of our earlier posts, the price of oil has fallen from over $70 a barrel to under $60 a barrel over the last few days. Interestingly, while many petrol retailers across UK continue to charge in excess of one pound a litre, supermarket chain Asda has reduced the price on its forecourts to 99p a litre with a suggestion there was "little justification" to charge in excess of one...
Read MoreLloyds bank in dispute with the Treasury
As we approach D-Day for the Lloyds bank rights issue, it would appear that the company is currently in dispute with the Treasury over the its participation in the government's asset protection scheme. The whole point of the proposed £25 billion pounds rights issue is so that the company can improve its balance sheet and also protect the assets which were going to be injected into the asset prote...
Read MoreThe V shaped recovery seems further away than ever
While a number of government ministers have privately talked about hopes of a V shaped recovery in the UK economy, which effectively means a strong bounce from the bottom, these hopes are slowly fading day by day. The recent forecast of economic growth in the budget has been shown to be overoptimistic at best and politically motivated at worst with even the Treasury Department itself publishing da...
Read More