Woolworths to rise from dead as Web retailer

Quick! Someone call Buffy the Empire Slayer -- the corpse of Woolworths was just sighted rising from its grave.

The Barclay brothers, who own Littlewoods and the Telegraph newspaper group, have bought the stinking cadaver of Woolies alongside the Ladybird brand, and plan to relaunch Woolworths as an online retail brand this year. No plans for a mail-order pick 'n' mix service have been confirmed.

Woolies went into administration late last year after failing to attract a buyer, though it was for a while rumoured that Dragons' Den's Theo Paphitis was in talks to buy the brand.

Woolworths triumphed for a century as a high-street shopping destination, but it faces enormous competition online from the likes of Amazon. With its established brand name and the infrastructure of Littlewoods behind it, however, there may be hope, although we wouldn't be entirely surprised to see it utilised as a secondary outlet for the online Littlewoods catalogue.

But if we can buy CD singles, Mr Blobby pink lemonade and 100g of white chocolate mice, we're on board.