Only weeks after closing store doors, Woolworths is to be re-launched as an online retailer after Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay purchased the company.

Woolworths went into administration in November and finally closed its stores a month ago with debts of £385m. It is thought that only a small number of the previous total of 30,000 staff will get their jobs back.

“A New Hope?”

The Barclay twins, owners of the Daily Telegraph, have bought the company for their Shop Direct Group, which also includes other online retailers such as Great Universal and Marshall Ward, for an undisclosed sum.

Chief Exec, Mark Newton-Jones, said he was confident about Woolworths’ future.

This is great news and we are confident that Woolworths, as an online brand, will once again prosper and stay at the heart of British retailing.

 He said that woolworths online was hoping to be launched by the summer.

It would have been a tragedy should the name have disappeared, it is an iconic name.

New product ranges are expected to be announced in the coming months with childrens clothing brand, Ladybird, expected to return.