WILKO is pulling down the shutters on another 28 shops today, but a rival chain will reopen the website in weeks.
The collapsed retailer is closing dozens of stores, ahead of 400 sites shutting for good.
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The 90-year-old retailer has already shuttered 24 branches this week, with a further 124 to close next week.
The Wilko closures this week alone will lead to 1,016 redundancies.
Administrators confirmed today they have agreed the sale of the retailer’s brand name to The Range in a £5million deal.
The deal will see the Wilko website reopen in October after all shops shut for good, and the brand name will also live on.
As part of the agreement, which also includes Wilko’s intellectual property, 36 jobs have been saved as the employees transfer over to the discounter.
On Tuesday, Poundland swooped in to snap up 71 Wilko stores and said former workers will be first in line for new jobs.
The discount chain said that it will rebrand the stores and have them ready for Christmas trading.
PwC has already agreed a roughly £13million deal to sell up to 51 Wilko stores to rival B&M.
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All remaining Wilko stores will be closed by early next month, resulting in the redundancies of a further 9,100 employees at those sites.
Here is the full list of 28 Wilko stores shutting for good today:
- Ashford
- Avonmeads
- Banbury
- Barrow in Furness
- Basildon
- Belle Vale
- Burnley (Relocation)
- Clydebank
- Cortonwood
- Dagenham
- Dewsbury
- Eccles
- Folkestone
- Great Yarmouth
- Hammersmith
- Huddersfield
- Morriston
- New Malden
- North Shields
- Queen Street Cardiff
- Rhyl
- Southampton-West Quay
- St Austell
- Stockport
- Truro
- Uttoxeter
- Walsall
- Woking
On Sunday, September 17, 38 stores will close across the country followed by another 38 on the following Tuesday.
Later next week on September 21, a further 47 stores will shut their doors for good.
Timings for the shuttering of the remaining stores will be announced in due course.
Wilko’s warehouses in Worksop and Newport are also due to close tomorrow, with the majority of their remaining 886 employees being made redundant.
The closures come after a deal with entrepreneur Doug Putman, who previously saved HMV, to buy around 200 Wilko stores fell though.
The Sun exclusively revealed that talks PwC and Mr Putman had fallen through.
Wilko’s collapse is a “massive blow” to the retail sector and staff, but some experts say “the clock has been ticking” for a while.
In a heartfelt open letter to staff and shoppers chief executive officer, Mark Jackson, thanked them for their support over the decades long stint on the British high street.
Mr Jackson, said that the company had “left no stone unturned” in a bid to save the chain.
The collapse of Wilko has been described as a “massive blow” to the retail sector, but some experts have said “the clock has been ticking” for a while.
Meanwhile, here is the full list of 124 stores due to shut next week and their closure dates.
Make sure to keep up to date with the latest on Wilko on our live blog.
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