Dragon's Den star in talks over Woolworths

Published on Sunday 30 November 2008 20:26

THEO Paphitis, the Dragons' Den star and corporate turnaround specialist, has joined the growing circle of potential bidders for troubled retailer Woolworths, which collapsed into administration last week.

It is understood that Paphitis was among the parties who had meetings with Deloitte, the Woolworths administrator, at the retailer's Marylebone headquarters on Friday.

The entrepreneur, a judge on the BBC reality television show, has previously succeeded in turning round the Ryman stationery and La Senza lingerie chains.

His greatest success was with La Senza, which he sold to private equity investors for 100 million in 2006, eight years after buying it for 1.

It is believed that Paphitis's plan would be to sharply slim down Woolworths 800 stores to focus on perhaps the 250 most profitable.

However, given the depressed state of the UK high street there is no certainty he will proceed with a definite proposal.

Deloitte yesterday confirmed the talks with prospective bidders last Friday, but declined to comment on individual potential bidders.

A Deloitte spokesman said: "Face-to-face talks took place with a number of interested parties on Friday, including a number who were interested in buying the Woolworths stores and name as a going concern."

Paphitis was unavailable for comment yesterday. Woolies's largest shareholder, Ardeshir Naghshineh, with more than 10 per cent of the shares, is thought to be one of the parties who would like to buy the whole of the troubled business and retain the name.

He and Paphitis join a growing list of possible bidders for parts or the whole of Woolworths, which also includes Entertainment UK (EUK), a wholesaler of DVDs, CDs and games to big stores such as Tesco.

The Woolworths 2 Entertain division, a publishing joint venture between Woolies and the BBC, is not in administration.

It is understood that Britain's big supermarket groups have also informed Deloitte of their interest, as a substantial proportion of Woolies' stores have planning permission to sell food.

Waitrose has previously picked up a handful of Woolworths stores, including a London West End flagship in Edgware Road.

Tesco and Sainsbury are also said to be interested in cherry-picking certain of the group's property assets.