In These New Times

Woolworths Stores Enter Administration, Risking U.K. Jobs

By Howard Mustoe and Louisa Nesbitt

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — Woolworths Group Plc appointed administrators for its chain of stores and MFI Retail Ltd. collapsed, putting almost 30,000 U.K. jobs at risk, as the economy’s slide caused consumer spending to slump.

Woolworths, which opened its first shop in 1909, had Deloitte appointed as administrators today after an attempt to sell the stores ended. MFI appointed administrators yesterday.

Retailers are under pressure as a spending slump hits the U.K. The government pledged 20 billion pounds ($30 billion) of loans and tax cuts this week to spur the economy. Home- improvement retailer Kingfisher Plc today said consumer confidence was “shaken,” while DSG International Plc, the largest consumer-electronics retailer in the country, scrapped its dividend.

“The consumer economy got bad enough, fast enough,” David Stoddart, an analyst at Altium Capital in London, said yesterday evening. He advises selling Woolworths stock, which was suspended yesterday for the second time in a week.

The administrators will look for a buyer for “all parts” of the Woolworths business, and have received “expressions of interest from a number of parties” for Woolworth’s retail and wholesale businesses in the last 24 hours, Deloitte’s Dan Butters said in an e-mailed statement today.

Deloitte named Neville Kahn, Nick Dargan and Butters as administrators to Woolworths Plc and to its wholesale business, Entertainment UK Ltd, it said. The stores will stay open past Christmas and workers at the outlets will be paid. Woolworths Group Plc hasn’t sought protection from creditors.

Woolworths has more than 800 stores across the U.K. selling goods from candy to appliances. It employs about 25,000 people at its stores and four distribution centers, according to the statement. Furniture chain MFI, which was hurt by weaker demand as house sales plunged, had about 190 British stores and 2,500 employees.

Fewer House Sales

“The housing market has been the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Bryan Roberts, an analyst at Planet Retail in London. “MFI is not the sharpest on pricing, and with people not moving house, that’s massively hit them.”

U.K. home sales are at the lowest level in at least three decades, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said Nov. 11. A seizure in credit markets has restricted banks’ ability to lend even as the Bank of England cut interest rates to the lowest since 1955.

The spending dropoff claimed victims from Ilva Furniture Ltd. to homewares retailer Rosebys Ltd., which both collapsed in September. Fashion chain MK One came under the control of administrators this month for the second time in 2008.

“This is a worrying time for employees, but part of the role of administration is to seek to save the business,” a spokesman for the Department of Business, who refused to be identified in line with U.K. government convention, said yesterday of Woolworths.

Debt Load

As sales crumbled, the retailer was hampered by debt that totaled 295 million pounds when its first half ended on Aug. 2, more than 16 times its current market value. Woolworths had interest costs of 18.6 million pounds in the period, more than today’s market capitalization. The stock has plunged by nine- tenths this year after falling 62 percent in 2007.

“If they didn’t have any debt, things would have been short of expectations, but there would have been nothing to tip them into administration,” Stoddart said.

The retailer also was hurt by a deterioration at its stores, which had a 72.5 million-pound first-half operating loss on sales of 660.7 million pounds. Revenue dropped 3.2 percent at outlets open at least a year in the period. The company said this week it was in talks on a potential bid for the shops without commenting on reports that they might be sold for 1 pound.

Market Share

“I strongly suspect there is a profitable Woolworths chain within the loss-making business,” Altium’s Stoddart said.

MFI named Philip Duffy, Geoff Bouchier and Paul Clark of MCR as joint administrators. Sales fell further behind year- earlier revenue in recent weeks, according to an e-mailed statement from the administrators, who said they would review the possible disposal of some or all of the chain’s shops.

The retailer lost market share as Kingfisher’s recently refurbished B&Q do-it-yourself stores, Home Retail Group Plc’s rival Homebase chain and food retailers Tesco Plc and Asda, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unit, stepped up competition. MFI also had to go up against local outlets of Ikea, the world’s largest home-furnishings retailer.

MFI was founded in 1964 as Mullard Furniture Industries and is the largest fitted furniture business in the U.K.

Retailers may get a shot in the arm from a 2.5 percentage- point cut in the national value-added tax unveiled on Nov. 24 by Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling. Three days must pass until the reduction takes effect, though, potentially too long to help Woolworths.

Woolworths was started as part of its U.S. parent’s expansion. The company has no relation to Cape Town, South Africa-based Woolworths Holdings Ltd. or Woolworths Ltd., located in Sydney, which today deferred plans to buy back stock because of concern about the world economic slump.

To contact the reporter on this story: Howard Mustoe in London at hmustoe@bloomberg.net.