HOME shopping group Shop Direct says it wants customers to help it decide what it should stock in its new Woolworth online store.

Speke-based Shop Direct yesterday announced it was buying the Woolworth name and said it would relaunch it as an online store this summer.

This deal comes just days after Shop Direct, whose online and catalogue brands include Littlewoods and Kays, announced it was axing more than 1,000 jobs with the closure of its Crosby call centre. The company says the Woolworths deal will only create a “very limited” number of jobs.

Woolworths was forced into administration late last year with plunging sales and mounting debts, costing 27,000 jobs. The last of its 807 stores closed in January.

Shop Direct says the Woolworths brand is effectively “coming home” as the collapsed chain opened its first UK store in Liverpool in 1909.

Chief executive Mark Newton-Jones said: “We are delighted to be relaunching the Woolworths name online. Woolworths is a much-loved brand that engenders huge affection among British consumers and is an important part of the country’s retail heritage.

“In what will be Woolworths’ 100th year, we are proud to be reviving the brand for future generations.

“This is great news and we are confident that Woolworths, as an online brand, will once again prosper and, quite rightly, stay at the heart of British retailing.

“We ask that Woolworths customers come online and register with us to let us know what they would like to see from the exciting new woolworths.co.uk”

Shop Direct has also bought the Ladybird childrenswear brand, which it will revive along with the Woolworths website.

Mr Newton-Jones said: “We will be asking customers exactly what they want from us and give us their comments.

Shop Direct, based at Estuary Commerce Park, employs 10,500 people and is owned by the billionaire Barclay brothers.

The group said last week’s decision to close its Crosby call centre was down to the success of its move from catalogue to online retail, meaning it no longer needed as many telephone staff.

alistairhoughton