WILKO is pulling down the shutters on 52 shops this week as it prepares to close all of its 400 stores for good.
The 90-year-old retailer will close 24 branches today and a further 28 on Thursday after failing to secure a deal to rescue the stores.
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The Wilko closures this week alone will lead to 1,016 redundancies.
It comes after HMV owner Doug Putman failed to strike a deal to buy around 200 stores yesterday.
In a further blow to shoppers and staff administrators at PwC have now confirmed that it will close all stores by October.
Wilko’s warehouses in Worksop and Newport are also due to close on Friday, September 15.
A further 124 stores are set to close next week in three rounds of closures on Sunday 17, Tuesday 19 and September 21.
Timings for the shuttering of the remaining 222 stores will be announced in due course.
It is anticipated that all stores will be closed by early next month, resulting in the redundancies of a further 9,100 employees in those stores.
The failure to secure a deal means that remaining offers on the table are only likely to purchase a number of Wilko stores, and are not expected to include workers.
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PwC has already agreed a roughly £13million deal to sell up to 51 Wilko stores to rival B&M.
But the name Wilko could still live on as rival discounter The Range is in talks to take on the brand.
A deal would not include any shop locations, it’s understood, but could see the Wilko name used online or for certain products, though details are still being finalised.
Meanwhile, Poundland is also working out a deal to take on around 70 locations, sources say, but they would not stay as Wilko stores.
Below is a full list of Wilko shops that will close today:
- Acton, London
- Aldershot, Hampshire
- Barking, London
- Bishop Auckland, County Durham
- Bletchley, Milton Keynes
- Brownhills, Walsall
- Camberley, Surrey
- Cardiff Bay Retail Park
- Falmouth, Cornwall
- Harpurhey, Manchester
- Irvine, North Ayrshire
- Liverpool Edge Lane
- Llandudno, Wales
- Lowestoft, Suffolk
- Morley, Leeds
- Nelson, Lancashire
- Port Talbot, Wales
- Putney, London
- Stafford, Staffordshire
- Tunbridge Wells, Kent
- Wakefield, 121 Kirkgate
- Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
- Westwood Cross Retail Park, Broadstairs, Kent
- Winsford, Cheshire
The following Wilko shops will close on Thursday:
- Ashford, Kent
- Avonmeads, Bristol
- Banbury, Oxfordshire
- Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria
- Basildon, Essex
- Belle Vale, Liverpool
- Burnley, Lancashire
- Clydebank, Glasgow
- Cortonwood, Barnsley
- Dagenham, Essex
- Dewsbury, West Yorkshire
- Eccles, Greater Manchester
- Folkestone, Kent
- Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
- Hammersmith, London
- Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
- Morriston, Swansea
- New Malden, South-west London
- North Shields, Tyne and Wear
- Queen Street, Cardiff
- Rhyl, Wales
- Southampton West Quay
- St Austell, Cornwall
- Stockport, Greater Manchester
- Truro, Cornwall
- Uttoxeter, Staffordshire
- Walsall
- Woking, Surrey
Wilko tumbled into administration early last month after it came under pressure from weak consumer spending and debts to suppliers.
Chief executive officer, Mark Jackson, said that the company had “left no stone unturned” in a bid to save the chain.
Meanwhile, retail experts have revealed what went wrong with Wilko ahead of the store closures this week.
Plus, for a complete history of the brand and its founder, see our story.
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