'Too late' fear over Woolies rescue move by Sir Geoff

A LAST-ditch rescue bid for Woolworths was being launched today, but analysts fear it has come too late to save the beleaguered chain.

Retailing grandee Sir Geoff Mulcahy, who ran the business for almost 20 years, claims Woolies can be saved as long as administrators from Deloitte can be persuaded.

But with Deloitte moving quickly to offload various parts of the business time is running out. Mulcahy wants to take on 500 of the 813 stores, revive the brand and protect 25,000 jobs.

He told The Sun: "There must be a way of trying to save this business. It's late in the day - but there's still a possibility."

Deloitte has already moved to sell many of the properties to supermarkets and to frozen-food chain Iceland. Dragons' Den entrepreneur Theo Paphitis had a rescue deal refused last week.

Paphitis was critical of Deloitte's approach, suggesting it was not trying hard enough to save the business, concentrating instead on a fire-sale of goods. That sale, with many items at half price, is continuing.

Last Friday, 450 jobs at the head office in Marylebone Road were axed, leaving a skeleton staff.

Mulcahy built up Kingfisher, a conglomerate that owned Woolworths, Comet and B&Q. Woolies was demerged from Kingfisher and floated on the stock market in 2001. It made profits of £130 million at the time.