Saturday December 27, 3:06 pm ET
A quarter of Woolworths stores in Britain shut their doors
LONDON (AP) -- About 200 Woolworths stores in Britain have shut their doors for good.
The stores that closed Saturday represent about a quarter of the company's shops. The rest of the stores are to close within about a week unless a last-minute buyer is found for the failed retailer. It filed for a form of bankruptcy protection last month.
About 27,000 people are expected to lose their jobs.
The company's current debt-laden predicament is a far cry from the clamor that greeted the first British store, which opened in Liverpool, northern England, in 1909 under the FW Woolworths brand -- a subsidiary of the U.S. company.
The British retail company has outlasted its original U.S. parent, which closed its final Woolworths stores in 1997.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081227/eu_br...oolworths.html