First Wilko shop closures begin after rescue fails

The first Wilko shop closures will begin on Tuesday after the collapsed retail chain failed to find a buyer.

Stores including those in Liverpool, Cardiff, Acton and Falmouth are among 24 branches to shut, with a further 28 closing on Thursday.

It marks the beginning of the end of the Wilko brand on the High Street, with all 400 of the discount chain's shops set to close by October.

Around 12,500 staff are likely to lose their jobs.

Wilko fell into administration in August after struggling with losses and fierce competition from other discount chains, such as Poundland and The Range.

Doug Putman, the billionaire owner of music retailer HMV, had been trying to buy at least 100 Wilko shops but the deal fell through as rising costs complicated the deal.

On Monday, administrators PwC said that "despite extensive efforts" it had become clear that "no significant part of the Wilko operations can be rescued".

• All Wilko shops to shut with 12,500 jobs likely to go

• What went wrong at Wilko?

Rival B&M has agreed to buy 51 of Wilko's buildings in a £13m deal, but it is understood the stores will not be run under the Wilko brand.

And on Tuesday the owner of Poundland agreed to take on the leases of 71 Wilko shops. The company said that Wilko staff would have priority when applying for new jobs at the Poundland shops.

Meanwhile, retailers including Dunelm and Toolstation have urged Wilko employees to apply for roles at their businesses, saying they will be prioritised for vacancies.

On top of this week's store closures:

• Wilko's distribution centre operations will wind down on 15 September

• A further 124 shops will close between 17 and 21 September including sites in Bognor Regis, Humberstone in Leicestershire and Maidenhead

• PwC said timings for the closure of the remaining 222 stores will be announced in due course.

In Barking, one shopper told the BBC that she had popped into the local branch of Wilko for one last time.

"I've been coming here ever since I was a little girl," she said.

Next door to the store, fishmonger Nadeem said he was devastated by the closure. He said the chain helped to drive shoppers to the area and was worried about the impact for his business.

In Stafford, the Wilko store saw a steady stream of customers on its final day, with some shoppers holding heavily discounted products as they left.

One customer said that local businesses had been handing out job applications to staff, saying: "We look after our own."

Nadine Houghton, national officer at the GMB union, said: "Wilko was far more than a brand, a retailer or the products it sold, it was the thousands of loyal team members now facing an uncertain future."

Founded in 1930, Wilko had become one of Britain's fastest-growing retailers by the 1990s. However, more recently its large store portfolio became unsustainable, with the business owning too many shops in High Street locations at a time when out-of-city retail parks were becoming more popular with consumers.

Independent retail analyst Maureen Hinton said Wilko's store locations were part of its problems.

"Accessibility for the kind of products it was selling is very limited - it's very difficult to carry home bulky products from a High Street where you can't have access to cars and parking, which is being deterred in High Streets," she told the BBC.

She added that Wilko did not organise its store portfolio as soon as soon it should have done because it had such high High Street rent costs, which was a particular problem during a time when Wilko's competitors were expanding.

Coupled with a lacklustre online offering, the family-run chain faced the perfect storm, analysts say.

Luke, an ex-manager at a Wilko branch in Nottingham, lost his job six weeks ago and said the loss of footfall after Covid restrictions played a big part in Wilko closures.

"We are in the 21st Century where you can order online," he said.

Another worker, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed that the Somerset store she worked in never recovered after the second Covid lockdown, but told the BBC that Wilko's bosses were the root of the firm's problems.

"[There was] mismanagement, greed and total incompetence at the top. It's sad, its utterly sad," she said. She added that the store she worked at never recovered after the second lockdown.

Lisa Wilkinson, who was Wilko's chairwoman until January and who is the granddaughter of the chain's founder, said "everybody has thrown everything" at trying to save the business.

Full list of Wilko stores closing on Tuesday

• Acton

• Aldershot

• Barking

• Bishop Auckland

• Bletchley

• Brownhills

• Camberley

• Cardiff Bay Retail Park

• Falmouth

• Harpurhey

• Irvine

• Liverpool Edge Lane

• Llandudno

• Lowestoft

• Morley

• Nelson

• Port Talbot

• Putney

• Stafford

• Tunbridge Wells

• Wakefield

• Weston-super-Mare

• Westwood Cross

• Winsford