Congleton's Woolworths store due to shut by January 5 (From Congleton Guardian)

Congleton's Woolworths store due to shut by January 5

1:11pm Thursday 18th December 2008

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CONGLETON’S Woolworth store will close by January 5 unless a buyer can be found for the company in the next few days.

All 807 Woolworths branches across the country are due to shut between December 27 and January 5.

The announcement came on Wednesday from Neville Kahn, one of the joint administrators for Woolworths and EUK.

If a buyer cannot be found the last day of trading will be December 27 and 30, January 2 and 5 for 200 stores on each day.

“If we have a sale of business between now and then there is a prospect for those stores to remain open,” said Mr Kahn.

The stores employ a total of 22,000 permanent and 5,000 temporary staff.

Mr Khan said there had been offers for more than 300 of the stores from alternative retailers, and considerable interest from other retailers for the remaining 500.

John Hannett, general secretary of shopworkers union Usdaw, said he was “devastated” by the closure news.

“Our members can rest assured we will do everything we can to assist them at this difficult time,” he said.

“Woolworths staff are extremely loyal, dedicated and well trained, and wherever vacancies exist in the retail sector we will use our contacts to find alternative employment as speedily as possible."

The union said every store would be given just 10 days’ notice before they closed, and staff would be asked to work up to three days after their store closed to clear up.

“We are shocked staff will only be given 10 days’ notice of store closures, and deeply disappointed by the news no buyer has yet been found for Woolworths,” said Usdaw National Officer John Gorle.

“Redundancy is devastating at any time of the year, but particularly so at Christmas.

“We have been informed by the administrators the leases of up to 300 stores will be sold.

“This is terrible news, as it means our members will be made redundant and not transferred to the new owners of these 300 leases as they are announced.”

In anticipation of redundancies Usdaw sent out a letter to its members at the end of last week, giving information of their rights.

“We are talking with the administrators to secure the best terms for our members with regards to pensions, holiday pay and the speed of receipt of redundancy pay,” said Mr Gorle.

“This is an extremely distressing time, and we will be doing everything we can to make sure our members are treated fairly.”

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