All of Wilko’s 400-plus stores are to close with the loss of more than 12,000 jobs after talks with potential buyers failed to deliver a rescue deal for the stricken retailer.
The GMB union said on Monday that the administrators, PwC, had informed staff that all of the chain’s 408 stores were set to close by early October.
Wilko’s two big warehouses, in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, and Newport, Wales – at which 299 staff have already been cut – are to close on Friday next week.
“Wilko was far more than a brand, a retailer or the products it sold, it was the thousands of loyal team members now facing an uncertain future,” said the GMB’s national officer Nadine Houghton. “No worker caused the downfall of Wilko. But they will be the ones who will suffer. Wilko should have thrived in a bargain retail sector that is otherwise strong.”
Last week, PwC announced the closure of 52 Wilko stores and the loss of more than 1,300 staff, including support centre workers and warehouse staff, but continued talks with prospective buyers.
On Monday, a rescue deal proposed by the owner of HMV that would have saved about half of Wilko’s stores and secured the future of thousands of jobs collapsed.
Doug Putman, who engineered a turnaround of HMV in the UK and owns Toys R Us in Canada, had been negotiating a deal to save as many as 200 of Wilko’s 408 stores, throwing a lifeline to its more than 12,000 staff.
A £13m deal struck by the discount retailer B&M last week to save 51 properties did not include saving staff jobs, as the deal was only for the sites the retailer occupies.
Administrators remain in talks with Poundland over about 100 stores. However, if a deal is struck it would happen after the Wilko stores are shut and would not include the transfer of staff.
The discount retailer The Range is seeking a deal for the Wilko brand.
Putman’s plan, which offered the best chance of saving stores and jobs, originally involved trying to keep 300 stores and their staff running.
“It is with great disappointment that we can no longer continue in the purchase process for Wilko having worked with administrators and suppliers over several weeks to seek a viable way to rescue it as a going concern,” he said.
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The deal ran into trouble earlier this month when some big suppliers, including Unilever and Procter & Gamble, which supply many staple household cleaning and food products, said they wanted their debts repaid now in order to continue to guarantee supplying Wilko’s stores.
There were also concerns that some suppliers, which cancelled shipments to Wilko’s stores when the chain went into administration last month, would not be able to ship products for another six weeks.
“We had financing in place and received the full support of [the administrators] PWC, Wilko management and staff representatives, which we are deeply thankful for considering what a challenging time it has been for them,” Putman said.
“However, commitment to overhauling the trading framework of the business with partners and the costs of running Wilko’s legacy operations infrastructure combined has meant that a stable foundation could not be secured to ensure long-term success for the business and its people in the way that we would have wanted.”
The retailer, which was founded in 1930 when JK Wilkinson opened his first store in Leicester, took over stores left empty when Woolworths collapsed in 2008.
“It looks like the famous red and white shopfronts will be dismantled and Wilko will join Woolworths in the high street history books,” said Susannah Streeter, the head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. “The ditched deal could not come at a worse time for the high street, with its fortunes looking increasingly crushed amid the cost of living crisis and competition from online.”
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