Record companies are facing a race against time to ensure two of the year’s biggest albums are in shops by Monday (December 1st) morning.

Both Britney Spears and Take That’s latest LPs have fallen victim to the collapse of Woolworths’ CD distribution branch Entertainment UK (EUK).

The company stopped deliveries earlier this week after the high street store was put into administration.

As well as Woolworths, EUK was responsible for delivering 30% of physical music in the UK to stores such as WH Smith, Zavvi and Sainsbury’s.

Record labels are now using alternative delivery methods to ensure that album sales aren’t damaged by EUK’s collapse.

"We are monitoring events on an hour by hour basis and liaising with record, video and games companies to find a way through this situation," a spokeswoman from the Entertainment Retailers' Association (ERA) told the BBC.

Take That’s new album, ‘The Circus’, is currently out selling Spears’ ‘Circus’ by five-to-one on pre-sales alone.

Woolsworths’ fall into administration, a direct result of the global financial crisis, has left 30,000 jobs in the balance in the run up to the all important Christmas period.

(by Jason Gregory)