Over 50 Wilko stores to close hours after B&M purchase
Over 50 Wilko stores are set to close just hours after rival B&M acquired a number of stores in a deal worth £13m.
The retailer’s administrators, PwC, announced on Tuesday afternoon that 52 Wilko stores would be closed, leading to the loss of over 1,300 members of staff.
The final days of trading at the stores will be Tuesday 12 September and Thursday 14 September. The locations of the closing stores will be announced on Wednesday (6th) once staff have been informed.
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, joint administrator, said: “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, said: “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.”
This comes after value retailer B&M announced 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.
This had followed reports that Doug Putman’s offer for Wilko appeared to have fallen through due to issues relating to suppliers and funding.
Sources told The Sun that suppliers including Unilever and Procter & Gamble have demanded upfront payments from Wilko to guarantee supply.
The remainder of the retailer’s stores will remain open as it searches for a buyer for the rest of its estate. Other parties reported to have been interested include Poundland owner Pepco and The Original Factory Shop.