WILKO: From tiny family-run hardware store to High Street stalwart

The rise and fall of Wilko: From tiny family-run hardware store to High Street stalwart, Britain’s best-loved chain could finally close for good after 90 years of providing families their everyday essentials from lightbulbs to pick n mix

• The first shop was opened by JK and Mary Wilkinson in 1930 and the business has remained in the family ever since

From a hardware store on a tiny street in Leicester to having more than 400 stores across the UK, Wilko could soon shut its doors for good after more than 90 years. 

The family business was endangered with closure earlier this week, with around 12,000 jobs at risk. 

The budget-chain has become a staple for Britain’s shoppers who are after stationery, gardening supplies, homeware, cleaning products, or just a pot of pick-and-mix. 

Wilko, known then as Wilkinson’s, started as a single hardware store 151 Charnwood Street in Leicester in 1930. 

The shop – known as ‘Old Charney’ was opened by JK Wilkinson and then Mary Cooper, who were engaged to be married at the time. 

Wilko, known then as Wilkinson’s, started as a single hardware store 151 Charnwood Street in Leicester in 1930

JK Wilkinson (pictured) opened the first shop with his fiance Mary Cooper. Reportedly, the pair got married at 8am on October 22, 1934 at St Peter’s Church in Highfields – and were back at the shop by 11am

The first every Wilkinson shop (pictured) on Charnwood Street

Since the couple opened the first shop, the business has remained in the Wilkinson family

Reportedly, the pair got married at 8am on October 22, 1934 at St Peter’s Church in Highfields – and were back at the shop by 11am, such was their commitment. 

Since the couple opened the first shop, the business has remained in the Wilkinson family. But last month it was revealed that struggles for the company had become so severe they were considering selling it. 

READ MORE: Full list of Wilko stores at risk of closing down as High Street retailer on brink of administration 

This would mean the high street giant would fall out of the family’s hands for the first time in nearly a century. 

Within six years of starting the business the couple had six stores. Including two they had gained from JK’s brother, Donald Wilkinson, who had also opened two hardware stores in Birmingham.

Donald was brought into the company as a Director, up until he died in 1997.  

By 1940, the Wilkinson started to use motorised transport, a Jowett van, for customer deliveries. 

Most stores managed to stay open during the Second World War to keep residents’ air raid shelters and converted cellars well stocked. 

Three shops in Leicester had to close following the first air raid in the city, but they were all re-opened by the time the war ended in 1945. 

More decorating products are introduced to the stores in the 1950s in line with the rise of the ‘handyman’ and more people giving DIY a go to improve their homes. 

The new DIY products were proven to be a ‘huge hit’ with customers and this encourages the company to continue to diversify. 

Tony Wilkinson (pictured) is the son of JK and Mary who opened the first Wilkinson shop in 1930. He joined the family business as a branch manager at the store on Charles Street and then become chairman in 1972 and remained for 33 years

The budget-chain has become a staple for Britain’s shoppers who are after stationery, gardening supplies, homeware, cleaning products, or just a pot of pick-and-mix

Wilko is on the brink of collapse after the firm revealed it was filing a notice of intention to appoint administrators

Pictured: Staff stood outside one of the Wilko, known then as Wilkinson, stores in the 1950s 

Pictured: Customers queuing up to buy budget-friendly goods at Wilkinson, believed to be in the 90s

Wilkinson’s biggest shop to date is opened on Charles Street, Leicester in 1958. The budget-brand has remained on our high streets, whilst other companies such as BM and Home Bargains have moved to retail parks. Some critics say this could have contributed to the businesses difficulties. 

READ MORE: Wilko heads towards administration: Why is the UK brand on the brink of collapse? 

In 1960, JK and Mary’s son, Tony Wilkinson, joins the family business as a branch manager at the store on Charles Street. He then becomes the company’s first ‘Personnel Manager’ and later becomes chairman in 1972 and remains for 33 years. 

The 60s also saw the company open Britain’s first ever ‘self-service’ hardware shop.  

In the next decade the company begins to develop its own product ranges for the first time, launching its first product – a pot of paint – in 1973. 

It also establishes itself as a ‘home and garden’ retailer – long before the emergence of garden centres – and moving away from the traditional hardware shops. 

During the 80s the brand continues to grow with shops popping up across the UK and external suppliers are brought in to help deliver its products. 

After a ‘major review’, the company decides to stop selling bulky items such as lawnmowers and greenhouses and instead focus on what customers often buy – such as cleaning products and pet food. 

This was another step in the former hardware store establishing itself as a shop as it moved to sell things customers ‘could fit in a bag’. 

Most stores managed to stay open during the Second World War to keep residents’ air raid shelters and converted cellars well stocked. Three shops in Leicester had to close following the first air raid in the city, but they were all re-opened by the time the war ended in 1945

By the end of the 90s there were 152 shops and by 2008 there was even a Wilko Asia

In 2013, Wilkinson became Wilko and the company launched its new strapline, ‘where there’s a Wilko, there’s a way’

The family business was endangered with closure earlier this week, with around 12,000 jobs at risk

In 1995 the Manton wood warehouse, which as mostly built on old colliery land, is opened by JK and Mary. 

By the end of the 90s there were 152 shops and by 2008 there was even a Wilko Asia. 

But returning to the early 200s, in 2005 Wilkinson Plus – the online shopping platform – was launched.

In 2010 the re-brand programme of Wilkinson becaming Wilko – the name used on it’s own-brad products – began. The company launched its new strapline, ‘where there’s a Wilko, there’s a way’. 

Wilko expanded in 2018 with shops opening in Delhi and Istanbul. 

But this week, thousands of jobs at Wilko are at risk of being axed after it emerged the discount retail giant is on the brink of collapse.  

The privately owned firm, which sells everything from stationery to hardware items, has filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators at the High Court after spending weeks hunting for a rescue deal. 

Dr Amna Khan, consumer behaviour and retail expert at Manchester Metropolitan University, told MailOnline that Wilko has failed to stay relevant. 

‘When consumers think discount, they think BM, Home Bargains, or even the middle isle on their Aldi shop,’ Dr Khan said.

Dr Amna Khan, consumer behaviour and retail expert at Manchester Metropolitan University, told MailOnline that Wilko has failed to stay relevant

Wilko, which employs about 12,000 people, started as a single hardware store in 1930. It secured a £40million lifeline from Hilco UK, the owner of Homebase, at the beginning of this year

The privately owned firm, which sells everything from stationery to hardware items, has filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators at the High Court after spending weeks hunting for a rescue deal

She added: ‘One thing about Wilko is there hasn’t been an online push. 

‘There are many valuables in having in-store products, but there are too many frictions stopping the consumer – while other competitors have made it frictionless.

‘With consumer expectations, the bar is only going up. [Brands] are constantly having to reinvent and invest to really keep that bar high.’

Dr Khan said inflationary pressures and the increasingly competitive market are part responsible. But she also added that Wilko ‘doesn’t have the brand love that other competitors might have’.

‘The situation is as such because of the way the consumer has changed and the increasingly competitive market.   

‘[Wilko] struggles with some of the locations it’s in, you have to make a destination shop. Other companies such as Poundland are aggressively starting to grow in many different formats. 

‘With inflationary pressures it’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to manage costs and when you have products that aren’t everyday consumbles such as food, consumers can quite easily cut them, they can go without,’ she added.

Some shoppers have been left devastated by the budget-chain’s announcement. 

During the 80s the brand continues to grow with shops popping up across the UK and external suppliers are brought in to help deliver its products

The cost-cutting retailer isn’t the only company hard hit by the current economic times. Poundland, B&M Bargains and Iceland have also all closed some of their stores

By 1940, the Wilkinson’s started to use motorised transport, a Jowett van, for customer deliveries

More than 400 Wilko stores are expected to close if the company goes into administration  

Wilko chief executive Mark Jackson said: ‘While we can confirm we’ve had a significant level of interest, including indicative offers that we believe would meet all our financial criteria to recapitalise the business, at present we don’t today have an offer that provides the necessary liquidity in the time we have available, given the mounting cash pressures we’re faced with.

‘Unfortunately, with this in mind, today we’re having to take the difficult decision to file a notice of intention.

‘We’ll continue to progress discussions with interested parties with the aim of completing a transaction which preserves the business and will encourage those interested parties we’re in discussions with to move as fast as possible.

‘We continue to believe that our robust turnaround plan, with significant re-stabilisation cost savings in progress, will deliver a profitable Wilko and maximise the significant opportunities that we know exist.’

Revealed: All the towns and cities where Wilko stores are at risk of being axed 

About 12,000 jobs across 400 stores are now hanging in the balance as struggling discount retailer Wilko is on the brink of collapse. 

These are all the locations where the retailer has branches that are at risk of closure – with some areas potentially losing out on multiple shops, if the firm was to fold: 

Aberdare

Abergavenny

Accrington

Acocks Green

Acton

Aldershot

Alfreton

Alnwick

Altrincham

Ammanford

Andover

Arnold

Ashford

Ashington

Ashton-Under-Lyne

Aylesbury

Ayr

Banbury

Barking

Barnsley (3 stores)

Barnstaple

Barrow In Furness

Barry

Basildon

Basingstoke

Bedford (2)

Bedminster

Belper

Beverley

Bexleyheath

Bicester

Biggleswade

Birkenhead

Birmingham (3)

Bishop Auckland

Bishops Stortford

Blackburn

Blackpool

Blackwood

Bletchley

Blyth

Bognor Regis

Bolton (2)

Bordon

Boston

Bournemouth (2)

Bradford

Brentwood

Bridgend

Bridgwater

Brigg

Brighouse

Bristol (3)

Bromley

Brownhills

Burgess Hill

Burnley

Burton Upon Trent

Bury

Bury St Edmunds

Camberley

Cambridge

Canterbury

Cardiff (3)

Carlisle

Carmarthen

Castle Douglas

Chatham

Chelmsford

Cheltenham

Chepstow

Chester

Chester Le Street

Chesterfield

Chippenham

Clacton On Sea

Cleethorpes

Cleveleys

Clowne

Clydebank

Coalville

Cockermouth

Colchester

Corby

Coventry (2)

Cowley

Cramlington

Crawley

Crewe

Cwmbran

Dagenham

Darlington

Dartford

Denton

Derby (3)

Dereham

Devizes

Dewsbury

Didcot

Doncaster (2)

Driffield

Droitwich

Dudley

Dunstable

Durham

East Ham

Eastbourne (2)

Eccles

Edinburgh

Ellesmere Port

Ely

Epsom

Exeter

Falkirk

Falmouth

Fareham

Farnborough

Ferndown

Folkestone

Gainsborough

Gateshead (2)

Gillingham

Gloucester

Gravesend

Grays (2)

Great Malvern

Great Yarmouth (2)

Greenock

Greenwich

Grimsby (2)

Halesowen

Halifax

Hamilton

Hanley

Harlow

Harrow

Hartlepool

Havant

Haverfordwest

Hayes

Hemel Hempstead

Hereford

High Wycombe

Hinckley

Hitchin

Holyhead

Horsham

Hounslow

Hucknall

Huddersfield

Hull (2)

Huntingdon

Huyton

Ilford

Ilkeston

Ipswich

Irvine

Jarrow

Kenilworth

Kent (2)

Kettering

Kidderminster

Kings Lynn

Kingston Upon Thames

Kingston Upon Hull

Kingswood

Knowle

Lancaster

Leamington Spa 

Leeds (7)

Leek

Leicester (5)

Leigh

Leighton Buzzard

Letchworth

Lewisham

Lichfield

Lincoln

Liverpool (3)

Livingston

Llandudno

Llanelli

London (9)

Long Eaton

Loughborough

Louth

Lowestoft

Luton

Maidenhead

Maidstone

Manchester (4)

Mansfield

Market Drayton

Market Harborough

Matlock

Melton Mowbray

Merthyr Tydfil

Middlesbrough

Middlesex

Mildenhall

Milton Keynes

Morriston

Motherwell

Neath

Nelson

Newark

Newbury

Newcastle

Newcastle Under Lyme

Newcastle Upon Tyne (3)

Newport

Newton Abbot

Newton Aycliffe

Newton-Le-Willows

North Shields

Northallerton

Northampton (3)

Northfield

Norwich

Nottingham (9)

Nuneaton

Oakham

Orpington

Oswestry

Pembroke Dock

Penge

Perry Barr

Peterborough (2)

Peterlee

Plymouth

Pontefract

Pontypool

Poole

Port Talbot

Porthmadog

Portsmouth

Preston (2)

Pwllheli

Rainham

Ramsgate

Reading

Redcar

Redditch

Redhill

Redruth

Retford

Rhyl

Ripley

Romford

Rotherham

Rowley Regis

Royal Kingston Upon Thames

Rugby

Rugeley

Runcorn

Rushden

Sale

Salford

Scarborough

Scunthorpe

Seaham

Selby

Sheffield (6)

Shipley

Shirley

Shrewsbury

Sittingbourne

Skegness

Skelmersdale

Slough

Solihull

South Shields

Southampton

Southend On Sea

Southport

Spalding

St Albans

St Austell

St Helens

Stafford

Stamford

Stevenage

Stockport

Stockton On Tees

Stoke-On-Trent

Stourbridge

Stratford

Strood

Stroud

Sunderland

Sutton

Sutton-In-Ashfield

Swanley

Swansea

Swindon (2)

Tamworth (2)

Taunton

Telford (2)

Thetford

Tipton

Torquay

Trowbridge

Truro

Uttoxeter

Uxbridge

Wakefield (2)

Wallasey

Walsall (2)

Walthamstow

Walton On Thames

Warrington

Washington

Waterlooville

Watford

Wellingborough

Wembley

West Drayton

West Ealing

Weston-Super-Mare

Weymouth

Whitehaven

Widnes

Wigan

Wimbledon

Winsford

Woking

Wolverhampton

Wood Green

Woolwich

Worcester

Workington

Worksop (2)

Worthing

Wrexham

Wythenshawe

Yeovil

York

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