Deloitte, the administrators called in last month to handle the sale of the retail giant, announced that 450 jobs had been cut from support operations in London and Rochdale.
The news comes on the day Woolworths launched its biggest ever sale with up to 50% selected lines. The group employs more than 25,000 staff, but as yet no redundancies have been made in any of its stores or distribution centres.

However, negotiations with Dragon's Den entrepreneur Theo Paphitis to buy a chunk of the business and retain the Woolworths brand have broken down. It looks increasingly likely that the firm's retail property portfolio, all of which is leasehold, will be broken up and sold to multiple buyers. Front runners include supermarket chains Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Waitrose.