Woolworths rises from the ashes

There’s a great piece in the Times today about startup entrepreneur Claire Robertson, former manager of the Woolworths branch in Dorchester.

When her store was shut down last year – along with 800 others – Robertson decided to use the premises to start up a new spin-off enterprise, aptly named Wellworths (and nicknamed Wellies by the locals).

“Where Woolworths went wrong was that all the stores had to look the same,” says Robertson. “We were telling them things that they should stock and what didn’t work but it didn’t matter. Now we know what is going to do well and people are starting to realise that we are listening to them.”

Her local knowledge has helped her retail startup be a hit. In the three months since launch, Wellworths has already attracted more than 100,000 customers.

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