Wilko, a British household goods retailer, plans to cut more than 1,300 jobs. The company failed to find financing and protect its liquidity.
Wilko was put into receivership last month after the company failed to secure emergency funding. PwC said in a Tuesday statement that 52 stores belonging to the chain will be closed, which will result in the reduction of 1,016 jobs, and another 299 redundancies will be made at two distribution centers.
Wilko fires employees
The Sky News website said 24 stores would close on September 12 and the remaining 28 two days later. British convenience store chain B&M previously announced that it would take over 51 Wilko stores.
A total of 400 stores in Great Britain belonged to the Wilko chain. This means that it is still unknown what the future holds for other objects. A PwC spokesman emphasized that interest in the rest of the company is being investigated. “We are actively working with potential buyers,” he assured in a statement.
Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB trade union, told Sky that workers were furious at Wilko’s management’s “incompetence” which contributed to the company’s demise. “We still hope that an agreement can be reached to save most of the troops,” he said. GMB represents approximately 4,000 Wilko employees.
The Reuters agency has previously pointed out that the Wilko network is potentially one of the first major victims of the difficult economic situation in the UK caused by successive interest rate increases and high inflation. The monetary policy tightening cycle in the UK started in December 2021.
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2023-09-06 09:37:14
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