Theo Paphitis, the Dragons’ Den entrepreneur, has pulled out of the race to buy parts of Woolworths, the collapsed retail chain.

Mr Paphitis said it had not been possible to reach a deal with Woolworths' administrators at Deloitte.

Before becoming a judge on Dragons' Den, Mr Paphitis led the recovery of Ryman, the stationery retailer, and La Senza, the lingerie chain. He had hoped to keep the Woolworths name by buying a large share of the existing retail business.

Despite one party pulling out of the race to rescue Woolworths, Neville Kahn, the Deloitte partner in charge of Woolworths' sale, said it had received "substantial expressions of interest" in both the high street stores and Entertainment UK (EUK), its CD and DVD distribution business, including "a number of new parties which have approached us in the last few days."

Mr Kahn said it expects talks to continue into the early part of next week.

There has been interest in the collapsed high street retailer's property assets, with Tesco and Waitrose both keen to expand their high street presence by buying some of the premises.

Mr Kahn said: "...we have received a substantial number of bids from parties interested in the Woolworths properties and have gone under offer on a large number of the stores."

He added: “We are working as quickly as possible to assess proposals. We continue to work hard to ensure that any sale of the businesses, in whole or part, will preserve jobs. We are extremely grateful to the staff and management for their cooperation and support at this difficult time.”

Ardeshir Naghshineh, Woolworths' largest shareholder, has put forward plans to take control of the group, including EUK and 2Entertain, its publishing joint venture with the BBC.

He is understood to want to turn the company into an employee-owned business, with a similar structure to John Lewis.

Woolworths' management are also understood to have entered the fray, led by Tony Page, who runs the retailer's stores division.

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