Wilko name to SURVIVE in deal with discount chain rival – and shoppers will still be able to buy branded goods
WILKO administrators are set to announce the sale of the retailer’s brand name to The Range this morning.
The Range, owned by Plymouth-based tycoon Chris Dawson, wants to sell Wilko branded goods in his discount stores and potentially keep a website.
However his retail empire is exclusively on retail parks and Mr Dawson had little interest in taking on Wilko’s shops.
The Wilko name will vanish from the high street by the end of the month as administrators bring shutters down for the final time.
Poundland yesterday swooped on a deal to buy 71 shops from Wilko and said former workers will be first in the line for new jobs.
Poundland said that it wanted to rebrand the stores and have them ready for Christmas trading.
Managing director Barry Williams said: “In the coming weeks we will work quickly with landlords so we can open these stores as Poundlands with the new ranges that have been pivotal to our recent development.
“And once that process is complete, we will ensure a significant number of the Wilko colleagues will join our Poundland team.”
Administrators at PwC are now carving up Wilko’s estate after a deal to sell the entire chain to HMV owner Doug Putman collapsed at the weekend.
They have already shut 52 stores and sold 51 shops to B&M Bargains for £13 million last week.
Poundland and B&M will be reopening the stores they have bought under their own names.
Locations of B&M’s stores will be issued alongside its half-year financial results on November 9.
All Wilko stores will close for good by October, administrators announced on Monday.
The first 52 closures began yesterday, with 24 shops shutting for good by the end of the day.
A further 28 sites will close on Thursday this week, resulting in over 1,000 redundancies.
Another 124 stores are set to shut next week in three rounds of closures on Sunday 17, Tuesday 19 and September 21.
Administrators reported yesterday that timings for the remaining 222 closures will be announced shortly.
It is expected that all stores will close in the coming weeks, leading to a further 9,100 employees losing their jobs in those stores.
Wilko’s warehouses in Worksop and Newport are also due to close on September 15, with the majority of their remaining 886 employees being made redundant on that date.
The first wave of job cuts took place early last week, with a total of 269 support centre team member roles being axed in its Worksop site.
A further 14 jobs at Kin Limited, a subsidiary of Wilko, have also been cut after it too fell into administration.
Wilko collapsed into administration back in August after failing to find new backing for the business.
Meanwhile, we reveal the full list of Wilko stores Poundland has bought.
Plus, here is the full list of 124 stores due to shut next week and the 52 closing their doors over the coming days.
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