Wilko is back! Website relaunches after high street retailer’s collapse into administration – with Wilko-branded items available to buy in The Range within weeks
- The Range struck £5m deal to buy Wilko brand, website and intellectual property
- Shoppers will begin to see Wilko goods in The Range towards end of this month
Wilko relaunched online today, less than a week after the 93-year-old retailer shut the doors of its last high street shops for the final time following its collapse.
The Wilko.com website has appeared again after rival discount retailer The Range struck a deal to buy its brand, website and intellectual property for £5million.
Wilko has now recommenced selling thousands of products across its home, garden and cleaning markets, with hundreds of new lines and own brands to be added daily.
Sources close to the brand told MailOnline they were keen for consumers to know Wilko.com is the official website after police issued a warning when some shoppers reported losing hundreds of pounds on a bogus website for the collapsed retailer.
It comes as the business also confirmed shoppers will start to see Wilko branded products appear in The Range stores across the UK towards the end of this month.
The Range is not expected to set up standalone Wilko shops, but it has now restarted home deliveries of discount hardware and furnishings through the Wilko website.
A message on the Wilko.com website which has returned online following the chain’s collapse
Wilko shoppers enter a store in Liverpool last month before it closed along with the other 400
Staff empty one of the last Wilko stores that closed down, in Stratford, East London, on Sunday
Wilko chief digital officer Ben Exall said: ‘There’s no denying that it was the team members and local store network that helped make Wilko so special. The loss of thousands of jobs as stores closed up and down the country has been devastating.
What went wrong at Wilko and will it return?
What is Wilko?
Wilko was founded by James Kemsey Wilkinson in 1930, who opened the firm’s first store in Leicester under the Wilkinson Cash Stores brand.
By 1941 it was simply known as Wilkinson and grew as a hardware chain across UK high streets.
The firm, which simplified its name to just Wilko in 2014, grew to operate about 400 stores and employ 12,500 people in both its shops and Worksop headquarters earlier this year.
When did financial trouble begin?
The retailer had remained robust for many years despite wider challenges on the UK high street, growing as rivals such as Woolworths suffered issues.
Wilko reported strong profits for most of the 2010s and saw its turnover peak at more than £1.6billion in 2018, but by this point it had seen profitability begin to fall amid pressure on high streets.
Turnover has decreased in every year since, as it saw challenges in the sector compounded by the pandemic and tighter consumer budgets in the face of the cost-of-living crisis.
Why did it see fewer shoppers?
Wilko saw shopper numbers drift amid increased competition from rivals such as B&M and Home Bargains.
These shops have continued to grow, with consumers going in droves to their stores which are often based in out-of-town retail parks.
Retail parks have seen footfall rise sharply in recent years to the detriment of many high streets, where Wilko has the vast majority of its sites.
What attempts were made to save it?
PwC held talks with several interested companies, some of which wanted to buy some of the stores while others were interested in rights to its name.
The main hope lay with HMV owner Doug Putman, who had been in talks to take over the firm as a whole and keep about 200 shops as a ‘going concern’, but no agreement could be reached mainly due to ‘infrastructure’ costs.
What is happening to its stores?
PwC agreed a deal with rival B&M to purchase up to 51 Wilko stores.
Meanwhile, rival Poundland agreed to buy up to 71 Wilko stores in a separate deal. Poundland has already reopened 20 of these shops under its own brand.
The remaining stores will see their lease agreements end and it will be up to their landlords to find new tenants.
Will shoppers see the brand again?
Yes, after administrators sold the brand, wilko.com website and related intellectual property to rival retailer The Range for £5million.
What is happening to workers?
Most of Wilko’s 12,500 workers face redundancy after being transferred as part of administration deals.
The Range is taking on 36 workers from Wilko’s digital team after buying its brand and website. And Poundland has offered jobs to over 200 former Wilko workers in recent weeks.
‘Following the acquisition of the Wilko brand and website by The Range, what we’re working towards here is an opportunity to save an important part of the Wilko brand that people know, love and trust – and to represent that on Wilko.com where both new and loyal hardworking families will be able to find great value products to meet their everyday household and garden needs.
‘As a team delivering the digital transformation at Wilko.com, we’re committed to continuing the three pillars of the brand’s previous acceleration strategy – delivering on convenience, improving mobile experience and building lasting customer relationships.’
Wilko confirmed today that items across product categories including cleaning and household, decorating and DIY, garden and outdoor, homeware, pets and wildlife, storage and seasonal celebrations such as Christmas were all now live on its website.
The company added that not all of its own brand products were yet available, but hundreds of new lines will be added each day.
The Range chief executive Alex Simpkin said: ‘For 93 years, Wilko has been a fixture of many British households, synonymous for its breadth of products offering great quality value. It was important to us that the brand had a future.
‘Using our online and digital expertise, our intention is to continue to offer the best of Wilko brands and products alongside a breadth of household brands to its loyal customers who we hope will be happy to see this trusted brand live on.’
It comes after Wilko closed its final 41 high street shops on Sunday, having been shutting its 400 UK stores over the past month after tumbling into administration in August.
The chain had been selling off its last remaining products in order to recover more cash to help repay its outstanding debts.
The final closures brought to a close one of the largest high street failures in recent years, with almost all of Wilko’s 12,500 workers being made redundant.
Wilko was originally founded by James Kemsey Wilkinson in Leicester in 1930.
The family-owned business hired administrators from PwC after it came under pressure from weak consumer spending and debts to suppliers.
PwC then held talks with interested firms but was unable to secure a rescue deal for the whole firm, with a potential takeover by HMV owner Doug Putman collapsing.
As a result, administrators sold off a raft of the company’s assets in order to pay off creditors.
Deals were agreed to sell up to 71 stores to Poundland, and to sell up to 51 shops to fellow rival discounter B&M. However, both deals did not include staff.
Last week, Poundland said it had offered jobs to more than 200 former Wilko workers and has already reopened 20 of these sites under its brand.
Poundland aims to open all the former Wilko stores it bought by the end of 2023, with its new lease agreements set to be completed in early autumn.
However, the Times has reported that some of the store takeovers could fail after the new owners were accused of delaying completion with efforts to set up new rent and lease arrangement with move favourable terms.
Darren Kay, Poundland retail director, said: ‘We’re pleased to be able to re-open so quickly – not least because our ambition is to provide job opportunities for former Wilko colleagues.
A family look inside the Wilko store in Wood Green, North London which closed last Sunday
‘Of course, we’re not yet in a position to offer our fullest ranges in these stores, but we know customers will appreciate a shop that’s open, trading and employing colleagues to one that’s got its shutters closed.’
Administrators for Wilko confirmed in filings last week that the business owed around £625million when it went bust.
The documents also showed the retailer’s pension fund was left more than £50 million in deficit and is unlikely to receive more than £4million following the insolvency process.
Speaking on Sunday, nurse Mariama Barry, 35, a customer at the Wood Green branch in London for 15 years, said: ‘The store has been here for so long, so the fact it has gone is so sad. It was something you could rely on.’
Great-grandmother Yvonne Arnold, 85, added: ‘I feel really sorry for the staff. They were really nice.’
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