Wilko Undertakes Store Portfolio Review

Privately owned, home and garden retailer wilko is undertaking a complete review of its store portfolio and has announced proposals to close up to 15 stores before January 2023 as leases end and where favourable terms cannot be agreed.  This does not impact the retailers new store or store relocation programme which will continue as planned and, will allow wilko to ensure future investments are only made in great location with suitable terms. 

Wilko provides household and hardware items to UK families from its 414 stores nationwide and through wilko.com.  An established business with over 90 years trading, the business has many ‘legacy’ locations and has identified some outdated lease agreements.  Landlord relationships are changing and now is the time to prepare strong foundations and open negotiations with all landlords to enable wilko to restructure the portfolio.

Jerome Saint-Marc, wilko CEO comments; “Our history is steeped in serving our customers and communities going back to 1930 but there’s no denying the way people shop with us and where they want to shop with us is changing.  As a business we’re evolving and this includes working with landlords for more favourable terms, as well as looking at locations and store formats. We’ll continue to pull together to make our business better to secure the future of over 16,000 team members”. 

“We’ll be doing everything we can to support our affected team members who will be offered any available positions in nearby stores.  We apologise to those communities where stores are closing but will continue to offer them everything they need in nearby stores or via wilko.com.”

The 15 stores on the consideration list for closure unless new terms can be agreed are;

Of the stores marked for closure, 11 of the 15 stores have an alternative wilko within a five-mile radius.

Source : wilko

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