Three quarters of the 800 former Woolworths stores are let or under offer as the anniversary of the variety store group’s collapse approaches.

The proportion is up to 75% from 60% in August, research by property firm CB Richard Ellis showed.

New occupants of the stores primarily consist of discounters, grocers and fashion retailers.

Discounters, such as B&M Bargains, Poundland and 99p Stores account for the 39% of the acquired stores, grocers including Iceland and Tesco 26% and fashion retailers such as Ethel Austin and Peacocks 18%.

The administration of Woolworths a year ago led to fears of ghost town high streets. However CB Richard Ellis head of UK retail Ciaran Bird said: “Since we first investigated what had happened to the Woolworths stores in the summer the number of let stores has increased by 30% as a lot of the original under offer stores have now been let.

“Take-up of the stores is now strong across all regions, with the North East, South West, Scotland and Wales in particular showing a marked increase in store acquisition since the original research was published.”

He said that of the remaining shops, most are in secondary locations.