Wilko will begin shutting its doors for good on Tuesday, as the high-street retailer prepares to close down.
Stores across the country, from as far apart as Aldershot, Falmouth and Stafford, are among the 24 branches to shut, with a further 28 ceasing trading on Thursday.
Next week, another 124 more shops will go and the final 222 stores are all due to close by early next month.
Update:
Poundland to take over up to 71 Wilko stores
Image:
Customer Donovan Julies in a Wilko store in Acton, one of the 24 closing on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 staff will be made redundant this week, with all 12,500 of the company’s staff expected to lose their jobs as its 400 shops close.
It comes a day after administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said it had failed to find a buyer for the business who would take them on as Wilko shops and retain staff, but was still trying to sell the stores themselves.
On Monday, Sky News revealed a rescue deal for 100 outlets involving the owner of HMV had collapsed.
Read more:
Full list of Wilko stores set to close this week
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Image:
Empty shelves at the Acton branch of Wilko
Here are the 24 shops set to shut their doors on Tuesday:
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
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Last week, rival retailer B&M agreed to buy 51 Wilko stores in a deal worth up to £13m.
The premises will be re-branded and it is unclear if the discount chain will keep on or rehire any Wilko staff.
Wilko – owned by the founding Wilkinson family for decades – collapsed into administration last month under pressure from weak consumer spending, fierce competition from other discount chains, such as Poundland and The Range, and debts to suppliers.
All Wilko sites have continued to trade since then to sell remaining stock, with the retailer discounting thousands of products.
https://news.sky.com/story/wilko-stores-start-closing-for-good-on-tuesday-as-family-owned-retailer-prepares-to-shut-down-12959583
