All Woolworths stores to close by January 5

Closing down signage will start appearing between now and the end of the week.

Deloitte said 300-plus stores are under offer to other retailers. But it also said there is still interest in buying parts of the business and in the Woolworths, Worth It, Ladybird and Chad Valley brands.

New stock is still arriving and all 807 stores are being replenished with over 50 million items over the next week, the administrator said.

Last Thursday the retailer had a record day in terms of takings.

Administrator Neville Kahn said that Deloitte had struggled to sell the business as a going concern, but said there was still interest and that he believes the Woolworths brand will survive.

"I think it will come back onto the high street at some point," Kahn said, adding there had been interest in buying the brand from the UK and overseas.

The current Woolworths sale is discounting stock at between 20 and 60 per cent. This discount will get deeper as the stores near their closing dates.

Kahn said there was "considerable interest" in the remaining 500 stores.

All 27,000 store staff and 500 staff in the distribution centres will be paid up until the end of the year.

Kahn would not comment on whether the Government had recently intervened in the situation.

He said there was no guarantee that the 500 companies which supplied Woolworths' retail arm and EUK would be paid.