Wellchester (originally Wellworths) was a

retail store The retail format (also known as the retail formula) influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services ar ...

in Dorchester,

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

January 2009 saw the closure of the final 200 Woolworths stores in the UK, including the Dorchester branch. At the time of closure, Claire Robertson was the store manager and after the closure of her branch, she decided to open her own version of the store in the former Woolworths premisesHow Woolies Became Wellies: One Woman's Fight for the High Street
on BBC TV Listings, 03/04/2009 BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans officially re-opened the store on 11 March 2009 at 10am. On 2 April 2009,

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

aired a

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

entitled ''How Woolies Became Wellies: One Woman's Fight for the High Street'', following Robertson's journey from the closing of Woolworths to the opening of Wellworths. Weeks after the store opened, the store was the subject of significant media coverage from across Europe. Just three months after the opening of the store, Wellworths celebrated its 100,000th customer. Robertson said that she never expected to get through 100,000 so soon after the store's opening day.

In October 2010 it was revealed that the store would change its name to Wellchester after pressure from

Shop Direct Group The Very Group Limited is a multi-brand online retailer and financial services provider in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its head offices are based in the Speke area of the city of Liverpool, England. The brand was established in November 200 ...

, owner of the Woolworths brand. In July 2012, it was announced that the store would be closing in the following month. A closing-down sale went ahead in August, and

Poundland Poundland Limited is a British variety store chain founded by Dave Dodd and Steven Smith in 1990, originally selling all of its items at the single price of £1. The retailer grew from a single location in Burton upon Trent, opening its hund ...

applied for planning permission to take over the premises. The Wellchester store finally closed its doors on 18 August.

Legacy

In April 2010 Faith Footwear Ltd

went into administration As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions, similar to bankruptcy in the United States. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry on ...

and 70 stores were closed, more than 1700 staff lost their jobs. Inspired by Claire Robertson's success the Chelmsford branch of Faith was reopened by the staff who used to work in the store on 3 July 2010, the new business is called '

Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...

'. In the official press release Store Manager Justina Pay stated: "We were inspired by Claire Robertson and her success in turning her old Dorchester Woolworths store into Wellworths, a great example of someone who has had a massive success from a very sad redundancy. Customers were genuine in their sadness that our stores were closing and were concerned as to where they could buy quality shoes from, we knew we had to 'do a Wellworths' and try and bring it back!"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wellworths (Gb) Companies based in Dorset British companies established in 2009 Retail companies established in 2009 Retail companies disestablished in 2012 Variety stores Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom