Wilko names stores set to close next week
Wilko has named the 52 stores which are set to close next week.
The retailer’s administrators, PwC, announced the closures on Tuesday afternoon, leading to the loss of over 1,300 jobs.
The final days of trading at the stores will be Tuesday 12 September and Thursday 14 September.
The stores set to close on Tuesday 12 September are:
- Acton
- Aldershot
- Barking
- Bishop Auckland
- Bletchley
- Brownhills
- Camberley
- Cardiff Bay Retail Park
- Falmouth
- Harphurey
- Irvine
- Liverpool Edge Lane
- Llandudno
- Lowestoft
- Morley
- Nelson
- Port Talbot
- Putney
- Stafford
- Tunbridge Wells
- Wakefield
- Weston-super-mare
- Westwood Cross
- Winsford
The following stores will close on Thursday 14 September:
- Ashford
- Avonmeads
- Banbury
- Barrow in Furness
- Basildon, Belle Vale
- Burnley
- Clydebank
- Cortonwood
- Dagenham
- Dewsbury
- Eccles
- Folkestone
- Great Yarmouth
- Hammersmith
- Huddersfield
- Morriston
- New Malden
- North Shields
- Queen Street Cardiff
- Rhyl
- Southampton-West Quay
- St Austell
- Stockport
- Truro
- Uttoxeter
- Walsall
- Woking
Wilko fell into administration in August after a difficult post-Pandemic period saw lower footfalls and a decline in consumer spending due to the cost-of-living crisis.
At the time, Wilko employed over 12,500 members of staff across around 400 stores. The first redundancies began this week at two distribution centres in Worksop and Newport, after being put on hold as administrators considered Canadian businessman Doug Putman’s last-minute offer.
Edward Williams of Wilko’s administrators PwC, said on Tuesday: “In the absence of viable offers for the whole business, very sadly store closures and redundancies of team members from those stores are now necessary, in addition to the already announced redundancies at the support centre and distribution centres. We know this has been a deeply unsettling time for everyone concerned and would like to express our gratitude to all Wilko team members for the dedication and support they have continued to give the business in the most trying of circumstances.”
Andy Prendergast, GMB Union National Secretary, responded: “Every single redundancy is a person who will wake up facing an uncertain future. This needs to be on the forefront of everyone’s minds.
“The reality is years of mismanagement have led us here.
“We are still doing everything we can secure a deal that would protect the majority of jobs and stores. But this will be of little comfort for those not knowing how they’ll pay their bills.”
The news of the closures came after value retailer B&M’s announcement on Tuesday morning that it had acquired up to 51 stores from Wilko. B&M did not clarify which stores it had purchased, nor if any jobs had been saved. However the retailer said it would give an update on the timing of the new store openings in its interim results announcement on 9 November.