We were engaged to conduct a comprehensive inventory and commercial valuation of Woolworths’ major retail and wholesale assets. As well as 819 stores, high street retailer Woolworths PLC owned Entertainment UK, the market-leading UK wholesale distributor of CDs, DVDs, games software and books.  The company needed to renew its loan facilities as part of an application for an asset-based facility.  The key element of an appraisal process like this is the Net Orderly Liquidation Value (NOLV), which is the value we would expect to recover if the business was to go into administration.  The input for this was derived from a detailed analysis of stock and sales data files for each product category in the business, executed by our finance team.  To complement this information, our operations and supply chain team conducted a series of field visits to stores and distribution centres, to view stock and evaluate the likely recoverable values.  In addition to these processes, we met and interviewed the Woolworths senior management team to assess current and future issues and developments.  Finally, assets were considered in context through a detailed market research and competitive analysis exercise, which included more details on current and future market conditions affecting the business.  Our full appraisal of the company’s retail and wholesale stock assets of over £500 million, and its distribution centre plant and machinery assets, was delivered in a tight timescale and contributed to Woolworths receiving the largest asset-based loan ever made in Europe; in excess of £350 million.  Both the company and the lending syndicate were so pleased with the quality and content of the report that they both subsequently retained our services for annual follow up appraisals.