On the day high street hardware store Wilko published its hit list of stores to close, workers and unions were clinging to hopes of survival.
Purveyors of cheap and essential tat
Wilko – the store where you can buy a lightbulb, hair dye and sweets under the same roof – declared last week it was going into administration.
This put 400 stores and 12,000 jobs at risk at the DIY store that is a cheap purveyor of essential tat; a chain now on the brink of collapse.
Sales in a bid to reap cash
The signs of struggle are there. This week, Wilko suspended home deliveries, issued a list of 14 stores set to close and put on huge sales at the remaining stores.
One of those stores was on the high street in Worcester where crowds of people were buying and the workers were optimistic.
“We are hopeful a buyer can be found.”
“We don’t think any of our stores will close. We are hearing that there will be a buyer and jobs and stores will be saved,” says one of the senior workers inside the store, probably more in hope than expectation.
GMB, the union representing thousands of Wilko workers, is also looking on the bright side.
“The GMB Union is still hopeful that a buyer can be found for the Wilko business. We are supporting the management team in their efforts but are ready to support our members fully if the business fails,” says Richard Taylor, a senior organiser for GMB in the Midlands.
Many shoppers expressed their support for Wilko as they bought plug adaptors and garden chairs cheaply.
“What is the point of living in a country without Wilko?”
On social media, conservative middle England shoppers are up in arms.
“What is the point of living in a country without Wilko?” says one on X.
“Wilko is one of the only useful shops still on the high street,” says another.
Wilko management spent the week in talks in search of a buyer. Be sure, the longer the talks go on the cheaper the asking price will be. The word is, a sale is unlikely.
Mounting cash pressures.
“While we can confirm we’ve had interest, including indicative offers that we believe would meet all our financial criteria to recapitalize the business , at present we don’t today have an offer that provides the necessary liquidity in the time we have available , given the mounting cash pressures we’re faced with”
says Wilko’s chief executive Mark Jackson
Hence, the cutbacks in deliveries and hurried sales in the stores.
Sixty-seven years at the helm
It is a world away from the optimism that drove entrepreneur JK Wilkinson and his wife Mary who opened up a hardware store in Charnwood Street, Leicester, in 1930. JK Wilkinson was to stay on the board of the company until the day he died, aged 91, in December 1997.
Survived bombing raids
The pair opened six shops by 1939 and survived the bombing raids and upheaval of World War Two.
In the lean post-war years the rise of DIY, on the cheap, saw Wilkinson stores thrive through the 1950s.
As the decades wore on the family-run business started selling more than hardware and introduced its own brands. By the year 2000, it had 152 shops across the country.
