Wilko confirms it will close 52 stores next week – list of affected locations

Discount store chain B&M announced they have agreed to save up to 51 of Wilko’s 400 stores in a rescue deal worth £13million.

However, around 350 stores remain at risk as well as thousands of jobs.

The first round of store closures will take place next week with 24 branches closing on September 12 and another 28 stores to close just two days later. The mass store closures will lead to more than 1,000 redundancies.

So far, 269 jobs at Wilko’s support centre in Worksop and 14 others at a subsidiary firm have been lost.

Edward Williams, joint administrator at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said: “In the absence of viable offers for the whole business, very sadly store closures and redundancies of team members from those stores are now necessary, in addition to the already announced redundancies at the support centre and distribution centres.

“We know this has been a deeply unsettling time for everyone concerned and would like to express our gratitude to all Wilko team members for the dedication and support they have continued to give the business in the most trying of circumstances.”

It’s understood that the majority of the new shops will be rebranded as B&M stores.

B&M also said new store openings will be unveiled alongside their half-year financial results on November 9. B&M was originally named after its founders, Malcolm Billington and Brian Mayman as Billington & Mayman.

The company opened its first store in Blackpool in the late seventies but the brand has since expanded with there now being more than 660 B&M store locations across the UK. B&M previously took over shops from Woolworths and now has stores in France.