Shelves in under-threat high street giant Wilko were laid bare today – as devoted shoppers snapped up its low-price brands.
The stores – which has been plunged into administration – has been decimated by a fall in profits, despite good usage of the outlets.
And their popularity was plain to see in the Wimbledon branch, where shoppers had stripped the shelves of goods.
The combination of already-low prices combined with a mass discount sale meant stock looked to be running low at least there.
Wilko’s profits plummeted by £38.7 million last year as sales fell by 3.3 per cent to £1.2 billion, and rising inflation hitting families in the pocket.
The budget-chain had become a staple for Britain’s shoppers who are after stationery, gardening supplies, homeware, cleaning products, or just a pot of pick-and-mix.
It comes as Wilko has suspended redundancies while administrators consider rescue offers, according to the GMB union.
The union said on Tuesday it discussed a number of potential bids to save the stricken high street chain with the insolvency experts.
Shelves are looking bare at a Wilko store in Wimbledon after it launched a discount sale after going into administration
Shops are expected to close within weeks, with thousands of job losses unless a rescue deal can be secured
Andy Prendergast, GMB national secretary, said: “All redundancies at Wilko have been suspended while the administrator considers further bids.
“Whilst this is a positive development, Wilko is not out of the woods by any means and this is a time of incredible stress and worry for the 12,500 workers who face losing their jobs.”
It comes after reports of fresh last-minute bids to potentially buy the retailer.
At the weekend Wilko’s former boss of 15 years Gordon Brown criticised the founder’s granddaughter Lisa Wilkinson for ditching the tried-and-tested strategy of discount prices, and for veering away from ‘their successful model of low price, low cost’.
Wilko’s managing director from 1992 to 2007 told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Wilko was a convenience store where you went to buy bits and pieces for your house for a low price.’
A number of staple items were missing from the shelves after the administration went public
There were other empty shelves in other Wilko stores as shown on social media this month
He added: ‘They paid consultants who helped them bring about a new format for stores.
‘But they were less aggressive on pricing and their approach on the shop floor.’
A private equity firm has offered a £90million rescue deal in a fresh bid to save Wilko and its 12,000 jobs – just days after after HMV’s owner announced his interest in the struggling retail chain.
The equity firm, M2 Capital, confirmed today it has put in the 11th-hour bid to save the popular budget retailer, which is on the brink of collapse after falling into administration earlier this month.
The firm’s managing director Robert Mantse told the BBC if his offer was accepted by administrators for Wilko, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), M2 will endeavour to ‘guarantee all employees’ jobs for two years’.
Last week HMV tycoon Doug Putman emerged as Wilko’s most likely saviour with him tabling a last-ditch multi-million-pound rescue offer.
A private equity firm has offered an £90million rescue deal in a fresh bid to save Wilko and its 12,000 jobs
The equity firm, M2 Capital, confirmed it has put in the 11th-hour bid to save Wilko. Pictured is the firm’s managing director Robert Mantse
Retail mogul Doug Putman, 39, whose firm, Sunrise Records, bought HMV in 2019, is understood to currently be in talks with Wilko bosses
The 39-year-old owns the British CD seller and Canada’s largest toy business Toys R Us, and in talks with administrators PwC to buy part of the business.
He has proposed to keep around 200 of its 400 shops and between 3,000 and 4,000 of its 12,000 staff. The deal would also mean the survival of the Wilko brand.
Administrators were said to be working through the weekend to analyse a final bid from Mr Putman, in order to secure the best outcome for creditors and staff.
Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said today: ‘The Canadian tycoon we have to thank for HMV is in talks to rescue around half of stricken Wilko shops, which would save up to around 4,000 jobs.
‘While a deal is far from guaranteed, and is even unlikely by some estimations, it does offer a glimmer of hope to high street users and Wilko staff facing huge uncertainty.
‘The Wilko model of “pile it high and sell it cheap” saw its wheels come off as volumes weren’t what they needed to be following the enormous pressure heaped on the chain following the pandemic, and its online proposition was slow to shine compared to others.’