Wilko staff to learn immediate fate this morning

More than 1,000 retail jobs will go at Wilko after administrators failed to find buyers for 52 stores.

Some 1,016 staff will be made redundant, with the stores closing between 12-14 September.

The staff will be told at 10am this morning.

Administrator PriceWaterhouseCoopers said it was ‘actively working with potential buyers, however the 52 stores ‘do not form part of any ongoing interest in the Wilko store portfolio.’

A further 299 staff are set to be made redundant on Thursday at Wilko’s distribution centres in Worksop and Newport.

‘In the absence of viable offers for the whole business, very sadly store closures and redundancies of team members from those stores are now necessary, in addition to the already announced redundancies at the support centre and distribution centres. We know this has been a deeply unsettling time for everyone concerned and would like to express our gratitude to all Wilko team members for the dedication and support they have continued to give the business in the most trying of circumstances,’ says Edward Williams, joint administrator.

‘Every single redundancy is a person who will wake up facing an uncertain future. We are still doing everything we can secure a deal that would protect the majority of jobs and stores. But this will be of little comfort for those not knowing how they’ll pay their bills,’ says Andy Prendergast, GMB national secretary.

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