Woolworths for sale at just £1

The venerable high street retailer Woolworths is to sell its 820-store chain, founded in 1909 and once worth £830m, for just £1.

The announcement that the company is seeking a buyer in mid-november reveals that it must be dangerously close to bankruptcy: Woolworths makes 90 per cent of its profits in the six weeks before Christmas.

Other retailers feeling the squeeze in the run-up to Christmas include Marks & Spencer, which is holding a pre-Christmas clearance sale for the first time since 2004, cutting all prices by 20 per cent for today only.

The Office for National Statistics is expected to release figures later today which show that retail sales fell by 0.4 per cent in September, cutting annual growth to 1.8 per cent from 3.3 per cent a month earlie.