Hundreds of job losses confirmed at Wilko
A bid to buy the business in its entirety has fallen through
Last updated 31st Aug 2023
Hundreds of jobs will be lost at Nottinghamshire-based Wilko after a bid to buy the entire business fell through.
The only potential bidder, which had said it would protect all 12,500 employees and 400 Wilko sites, missed the deadline set by administrator PwC.
PWC said "it is now clear that no viable offer structure put forward includes the group in its entirety".
It confirmed 269 support centre workers will have their last day with the business on Monday, with further redundancies across two distribution centres due to take place from early next week.
The decision will impact Wilko's support centre in Worksop and its warehouses in Worksop and Newport.
The GMB union said a bidder, reported to be M2 Capital, had not submitted the evidence needed to show it could buy the business.
PwC also said there had been no viable offers for Kin Limited, a subsidiary of the company. Kin has been forced to close, with 14 jobs gone.
The administrator said discussions are continuing with bidders interested in buying parts of the business.
The GMB said: "As a result of this unwelcome development, the redundancy processes which were paused two days ago are set to restart almost instantly."