Interested parties should contact: + 44 (0) 20 7007 1700
Suppliers, landlords, creditors and shareholders should contact: + 44 (0) 207 706 5000

Neville Kahn, Nick Dargan and Dan Butters have been appointed Joint Administrators to Woolworths Plc, the high street retailer, and Entertainment UK Ltd (E.UK), the wholesale division of Woolworths Group Plc.

The retail arm of the company operates out of some 800 high street stores and four distribution centres, employing 25,000 staff.  E.UK is the UK's leading distributor of entertainment products.

Neville Kahn, Reorganisation Services partner at Deloitte, commented: “Woolworths has suffered a number of cash flow problems. Strenuous efforts over recent weeks to keep these companies going have unfortunately failed and the businesses are now looking to be rescued under the administration process. The companies were placed into administration this morning and will continue to trade. Stores will remain open past Christmas and employees in stores will be paid.

“We have mobilised a large Deloitte team to stabilise the business and have hired Hilco as our agent to assist in the management of the retail business. We appreciate the cooperation and support from the management and staff at both companies. We are glad that arrangements are in place to ensure that all wages will be paid in full this week.”

Dan Butters, reorganisation services partner at Deloitte, commented: “We will be looking for a suitable buyer for all parts of the business. In the last 24 hours we have received expressions of interest from a number of parties for both the retail and wholesale businesses.  We are working hard to ensure that any sale of the business, in whole or part, will preserve jobs.”

Ends

Note to editors:
About Deloitte
In this press release references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte & Touche LLP, which is among the country's leading professional services firms.
Deloitte & Touche LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (‘DTT’), a Swiss Verein, whose member firms are legally separate and independent entities.  Please see www.deloitte.co.uk\about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTT and its member firms.
The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.