Woolworths Group had been opened, although in April the company also entered administration and closed. The Woolworths store in Dorchester, Dorset was reopened as an independent business named "Wellworths" by the store manager Claire Robertson. The store was officially opened by BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans on 11 March 2009. It was later renamed "Wellchester". Wellchester ceased trading in August 2012, after store manager Claire Robertson left to set up her own retail consultancy business. The Woolworths brand and domain was bought by Shop Direct Group, owned by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, on 2 February 2009. The company announced
Woolworths Group chains expanded into many of Woolworths' product areas, and the fast-expanding Wilkinson challenged it directly on the high street. Woolworths did not generally follow the trend started in the 1980s of opening stores at out-of-town relocations. One of its few out-of-town stores opened at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in 1989, but this closed within a few years due to disappointing trade. In an attempt to raise the group's corporate profile, under the chairmanship of Gerald Corbett, Woolworths sponsored a show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2004. Designed by a group of graduate students from Pickard School