The new management of Woolworths today revealed it has already received several expressions of interests from parties about buying parts of the business which collapsed last night after 99-years of trading.

Deloitte, the accountancy firm appointed by the court to find a buyer for Woolworths, is fighting to save the jobs of 30,000 staff who work in its 840 stores and at EUK, a profitable CD and DVD wholesale distribution and logistics business. The retailer confirmed this morning that it has filed for administration.

Dan Butters, a partner at Deloitte, said: “In the last 24 hours we have received expressions of interest from a number of parties for both the retail and wholesale businesses.”

“We are working hard to ensure that any sale of the business, in whole or part, will preserve jobs.”

Neville Kahn, also a partner with Deloitte, confirmed that Woolworths staff would be paid their November wages in full as promised by the group’s chief executive Steve Johnson yesterday morning.

Mr Kahn added that Woolworths stores will remain open past Christmas and employees at the shops will be paid until then. However, many of the stores are almost certain to be closed after the Christmas sales.

Meanwhile, MFI, the furniture retailer which last night went bust for a second time, is also understood to have received interest from potential buyers.

The administrators of MFI have said they have received two expressions of interest in the retailer.

However, this is the second time in months the discount furniture store has fallen into administration and it is likely buyers will not be found for many of its 110 stores, which employ more than 1,000 people.

Deloitte has appointed Hilco, which was previously in talks to buy Woolworths’ 840- store retail arm for £1, to manage the retail business.

“Woolworths has suffered a number of cash flow problems. Strenuous efforts over recent weeks to keep these companies going have unfortunately failed and the businesses are now looking to be rescued under the administration process,” said Mr Kahn.

However, concerns are mounting among customers of EUK, which delivers to many of the UK’s big retailers including Asda, J Sainsbury, Zavvi (formerly Virgin Megastores) and Woolworths itself.

Deliveries collapsed yesterday, hitting the entertainment sector at a time when it is critical get products into shops.

About half of all music and film sales are conducted in the last six weeks before Christmas, although it is expected that the major supermarkets will find a way of resuming deliveries quickly, possibly using other suppliers.

BBC yesterday indicated that it would be willing to act quickly to take full control of 2Entertain, its DVD distribution business, for around £100 million, because it wants to ensure there is no disruption to the delivery of its Doctor Who and more catalogue to the high street.

A purchase by BBC Worldwide, the Corporation's commercial arm, is likely to be agreed quickly by the BBC Trust, because of the perceived importance of the venture. According to the BBC Worldwide accounts, the BBC made £41.2 million of operating profit on its 60 per cent share of 2 Entertain.

Woolworths' pensioners also stand to lose out. The group's pension fund had a mammoth £100 million pension deficit.

Woolworths's PLC has agreed with the Pensions Regulator to pay £50 million to trustees of the scheme as part of the sale of DVD and CD publishing business 2Entertain to the BBC for around £100m. 2Entertain's employees, who will join the BBC, will be safe. But pensioners and current employees of the two collapsed arms will have to stand in line other with other creditors.

The Times revealed last Wednesday Woolworths was in crunch talks to sell its retail arm to Hilco, a hedge fund that specialising in buying up distressed businesses for just £1.

Woolworths, which was has been loss-making for years, has a £385m debt mountain. The retailer's own two leading lenders are themselves struggling under the weight of the global financial crisis.

The board of Woolworths PLC met at six o’clock last night a voted through a measure to put the bulk of the business into administration.

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