In November, the UK arm of Woolworths went bust and today it emerged that the German arm had followed suit, putting at risk around 11,000 jobs after filing for insolvency on Saturday.
The German business, bought by British investor Argyll Partners from private equity firm Electra at the end of 2007, has 323 shops, of which US investor Cerberus owns around a third of the buildings.
Founded in 1926, the retail chain turned over about €900m last year and brought in a former Lidl manager, Stefan Rohrer, to run the business in March. He quit, after just four weeks, at the start of this month.
Frankfurt's district court said it had appointed Ottmar Hermann as administrator – just days after he took on the same role at the venerable car-parts supplier and designer Karmann.
The German business, bought by British investor Argyll Partners from private equity firm Electra at the end of 2007, has 323 shops, of which US investor Cerberus owns around a third of the buildings.
Founded in 1926, the retail chain turned over about €900m last year and brought in a former Lidl manager, Stefan Rohrer, to run the business in March. He quit, after just four weeks, at the start of this month.
Frankfurt's district court said it had appointed Ottmar Hermann as administrator – just days after he took on the same role at the venerable car-parts supplier and designer Karmann.
