Sunday marks the end of Wilko’s 93 years of trading on British high streets – as it sells off its last remaining products to help repay outstanding debts
The homeware store’s last 41 branches closed their doors for a final time on Sunday, the last of some 400 stores to do so. Almost all of its 12,500 workers have lost their jobs. Turnover has decreased every year since. Tighter consumer budgets and the cost of living crisis saw Wilko’s shoppers drift to competitors at B&M and Home Bargains.Wilko faced weaker consumer demand due to a challenging economic climate.
“The stores they have are a burden and mostly too big,” said retail analyst Richard Hyman, “They have excess space where they are selling a wide variety of products which they probably shouldn’t be selling to start with, stretching into all sorts of different markets. PwC agreed a deal with competitor B&M to purchase up to 51 Wilko stores, while Poundland agreed to buy up to 71 stores in a separate deal. Poundland has already reopened 20 of these shops under its own brand.