2023-09-11 19:47:00
For the unions, it is a “collapse”. All remaining stores of the bankrupt Wilko retail chain will close, resulting in a tsunami of more than 10,000 layoffs.
Consulting firm PwC, which is administering the bankruptcy, announced 9,100 additional layoffs on Monday, adding to more than 1,600 job cuts already announced in recent weeks. Not to mention the departures of employees who decided to leave the company without delay, specifies a PwC spokesperson. In the end, almost all of the 12,500 jobs that the brand had before its bankruptcy will disappear.
Vague massive
PwC explains in a press release that it “explored all possibilities to save the company” but that it “became clear that there is no significant part of Wilko’s operations that can be saved in its current form”. “As a result, administrators informed all employees (Monday) that they will unfortunately begin closing all Wilko stores, both distribution centers, and shut down the majority of operations at the Customer Care Center,” continues PwC in its press release.
Earlier on Monday, the GMB union which represented several thousand of the group’s employees had already claimed that the bankruptcy administrators had notified it of the imminent closure of all remaining stores and the massive wave of layoffs to come.
Investor Doug Putman, owner of HMV music stores, had just announced that he was throwing in the towel in his attempt to take over several hundred Wilko stores. “Despite significant and intensive efforts by us and Putman Investments – the last remaining potential buyer of a significant portion of the business in its current form – a transaction could not be completed due to the inability to reduce the central infrastructure costs quickly enough to make it a viable transaction,” PwC justified.
“Incompetence”
Wilko filed for bankruptcy in early August, hit by the cost of living crisis and inflation in the United Kingdom. The red-and-white logo brand began life as a hardware store in the central Leicester city of Leicester in the 1930s before quickly expanding across the UK, widening its range of products. which now ranges from interior decoration to household products, among others.
The GMB union slammed “the incompetence which led to this collapse”. A source close to the matter also confirmed information from the British press on Monday according to which PwC was discussing a possible partial takeover of Wilko stores with the Poundland and Home Bargains distribution chains. If these discussions continue, they therefore only concern a minimal share of remaining jobs and assets such as the brand or intellectual property.
Before its bankruptcy, the brand had some 400 sites. A Wilko competitor, B&M, has taken over up to 51 stores, without specifying how many employees will keep their jobs. They will also close in their current form and reopen under the B&M brand.
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