for the former northern irish retailer see wellworths . wellchester the wellchester logo 2010 2012 former type stationery confectionery frames diy toys seasonal household industry retail fate closed founded 2009 founder claire robertson defunct 2012 headquarters dorchester dorset england area served dorchester key people store manager claire robertson 2009 2012 products general merchandise owner wellchester stores ltd. number of employees 23 slogan well worth the money 2009 10 something for everyone 2010 12 website www.wellchester.co.uk defunct wellchester originally wellworths was a retail store in dorchester dorset england . history edit wellworths in dorchester 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 premises 1 2 robertson secured investment for her new business and planned to open her store with 22 of the 25 staff that previously worked at the former woolworths store along with one new staff member . 3 bbc radio 2 dj chris evans officially re opened the store on 11 march 2009 at 10am . 4 on 2 april 2009 bbc one aired a documentary 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 . 1 weeks after the store opened the store was the subject of significant media coverage from across europe . 5 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 . 6 in august 2009 it was reported that the company was seeking backing to convert and then re open three more former woolworths stores under the wellworths name . 7 wellworths logo 2009 2010 in october 2010 it was revealed that the store would change its name to wellchester after pressure from shop direct group owner of the woolworths brand . 8 in july 2012 it was announced that the store would be closing in the following month . 9 10 a closing down sale went ahead in august and poundland applied for planning permission to take over the premises . 11 the wellchester store finally closed its doors on 18 august . legacy edit in april 2010 faith footwear ltd went into administration and 70 stores were closed more than 1700 staff lost their jobs . 12 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 . 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 13 references edit a b how woolies became wellies one woman s fight for the high street on bbc tv listings 03 04 2009 the wonder of wellworths . dorset echo . 2009 02 11 . retrieved 2009 05 24 . from woolworths to wellworths woolies shop reborn . this is money . 2009 02 12 . retrieved 2009 02 12 . wellworths of dorchester woolworths and surviving the british recession . 2009 02 24 . retrieved 2009 02 24 . european film crews flocking to wellworths in dorchester 26 03 2009 wellworths welcomes 100 000th shopper . dorset echo . 2009 06 23 . retrieved 2009 07 02 . riddle of online woolies chief departure . thisismoney.co.uk . 2009 08 01 . retrieved 2009 08 07 . wellworths forced to become wellchester from dorset echo closing time for dorchester s wellchester store from dorset echo harry hogger 10 july 2012 dorchester store set to close daily echo poundland to take over dorchester s wellchester store . dorset echo . 14 august 2012 . retrieved 25 august 2012 . finch julia 2010 04 22 . faith shoe chain goes into administration . london guardian . retrieved 2010 11 07 . faith girls fight back hope is coming . hope footwear . 2010 06 30 . retrieved 2010 11 07 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wellchester & oldid 714312797 categories companies established in 2009companies based in dorsetvariety storesdefunct retail companies of the united kingdomhidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload 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