“Walk into Wilko and look all around you…”
So the old advertising jingle on the TV used to go. If you walked into Wilko in the September sun, all you would see were largely empty shelves.
Sales at full tilt
The Wilko administration talks may be limping along, but the cash recouping administration sales are at full tilt.
Worse still, for the 12,000 Wilko workers, the redundancies begin this week, according to GMB, the union representing thousands of them.
“Waiting to see what this looks like.”
“There isn’t any bid going through to save the whole of Wilko. Workers at the Head Office and Distribution Centres are being made redundant this week,” says Stuart Richards a senior regional organiser for GMB.
“It looks like some of the stores may still be saved, but we’re waiting to see what this looks like.”
Apparently, the saviour of HMV record shop is still in talks, with the administrators PwC,.
The tycoon from Canada.
Doug Putman, the Canadian tycoon who cut his teeth in the family toy store back home, wants to buy 300 stores.
Entrepreneur Putman has an enviable reputation for resurrecting HMV – by switching emphasis from music to merchandise sales. PwC are looking at the finances behind the deal.
Then there was a fleeting £90 million bid for 400 stores by private equity outfit M2 that went as quickly as it came. Matt Haycox Daily asked M2 for comment on this bid, but, at time of writing, had heard nothing back.
The lost millions.
How did Wilko – that alway seemed to have customers – get into this mess in the first place?
It seems the family business resisted calls for a radical restructuring.
The losses piled up, according to accounts held at Companies House for Wilkinson Hardware Stores Limited.
Billions in sales, millions in losses.
In 2018, the company made £1.62 billion in sales, but racked up losses of £65 million.
During the COVID lockdown, sales fell to £1.47 billion, but a profit of £11.4 million was made.
Last year was one of the worst. In 2022, the company made £1.32 billion in sales and lost £36.8 million.
If there is a gossamer thin chance of rescuing Wilko, whoever takes over will have to address this haemorrhaging of cash.
