LONDON (AP) — Collapsed retailer Woolworths will soon have new life online after Shop Direct Group said yesterday it had purchased the brand name for an undisclosed sum.

In a statement, Shop Direct said it intends to launch www.woolworths.co.uk this summer. Details of product ranges are to be announced later.

Shop Direct is Britain's largest online and home shopping retailer with sales of about £1.6 billion pounds ($2.3 billion). Other brands include Littlewoods, Littlewoods Direct, and Marshall Ward. Bankrupt Woolworths closed all of its 800 stores in Britain in early January after being unable to find a buyer for the business. The company had employed about 30,000 people across the UK.

The first British Woolworths store opened in 1909 under the FW Woolworths brand — a subsidiary of the US company. The British retail company outlasted its original US parent, which closed its final Woolworths stores in 1997.

The company is not related to Sydney-based Woolworths Ltd. or South Africa's Woolworths Holdings Ltd.

Iceland Foods Ltd. said last month that it would create 2,500 jobs after buying 51 former Woolworths stores. The stores will be operated under the Iceland Foods name.

Woolworths sold everything from candy and children's toys to household appliances and DVDs and was a sentimental favourite with many Britons. But it struggled for years to remain relevant as supermarket chains expanded into its traditional business.