The future for Wilko’s 12,500 staff is hanging in the balance as they wait to hear whether a serious bidder for the budget retail chain has emerged.
Interested parties in the household goods retailer, which has 400 stores, had until Wednesday night to put forward their best offers for the company, which called in administrators last week as it faced running out of cash.
It is expected that dozens if not hundreds of Wilko stores will have to close because a bid for the whole group as a going concern is unlikely to have been made, say industry insiders.
A break-up of Wilko, which was founded in 1930 when JK Wilkinson opened his first store in Leicester, would leave holes on high streets across the country where the chain stepped in to fill gaps left by the collapse of Woolworths in late 2008.
The full chain is expected to continue to trade at least into next week as talks on parcelling up the group’s assets are expected to drag on with a range of interest in aspects of the business from many parties.
Administrators are negotiating with potential suitors including Poundland, B&M, Primark and Home Bargains for groups of up to 50 stores each. “It’s going to be a bit of a carve up,” one property expert said.
Bidders that could rescue the Wilko brand and at least part of the chain include Hilco, which holds £40m of the chain’s debt secured partly against the retailer’s brand name, the Bensons for Beds owner, Alteri, and the Laura Ashley owner, Gordon Brother, although it is not clear if any put forward a formal bid. The British private equity group OpCapita has also been named as a potential suitor.
Danni Hewson, the head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said the location of Wilko’s outlets may prove a stumbling block for some buyers from discounters such as B&M.
“A huge selling point for the likes of Home Bargains and The Range, which have been touted as potential suitors, is their out-of-town locations with plenty of free parking, making it easy for shoppers to buy discounted goods in bulk without worrying how they’ll get their haul home,” she said.
As rescue attempts continue, the company has now called a halt to click and collect orders online, having stopped home deliveries last week, as stocks in many stores begin to run low.
Wilko customers have expressed anger about difficulties in getting information on refunds and deliveries after the group’s helpline and chat service shut down last week. The helpline reopened this week and was overwhelmed with queries from shoppers.
The GMB union, which represents thousands of workers at Wilko, said it still believed there was a chance of a rescue deal. Andy Prendergast, the union’s national secretary, said: “GMB is in talks with administrators and there is still hope.”
The union has accused the firm’s management of allowing the retailer to lose its place in the market by failing to invest in technology for home shopping and other improvements while “much-needed cash was taken out of the business” by the owning Wilkinson family.
The GMB said: “We are seeking clarification regarding pensions, but have concerns. The Wilkinson family took tens of millions from the business in the decade up to the collapse. If they were serious about supporting working people, they should have invested in their staff.”
The last reported deficit for the group’s defined benefit pension fund was £16m, but the fund has a £20m security over Wilko property assets. John Ralfe, a pensions expert, believes the hole in the fund is likely to have closed because of the rise in interest rates.
The family paid themselves £3m in dividends in the 12 months to the end of February 2022 despite a loss-making year for the Wilko group, as first revealed by the Guardian.
They have moved into investing in startups, backing the British Design Fund and companies such as Unplugged, a company offering “digital detox retreats” near London. The Wilkinsons invested in the autonomous delivery vehicle company StreetDrone in 2021.
