High Street chain collapse sweepstake

[Martin Phillp]

As you note the business is starved of stock and I imagine that situation is major issue when it comes to any prospective buyer.

As I mentioned earlier, any potential buyer will have to invest between £25-£30m to get the shops stocked again to levels seen before the stock issues started, which hasn't been for months, but since the pandemic.

From what I've observed on Mon, Tues and today, they're getting a trickle of own brand stock and a tiny amount of branded stock delivered, yet it's obvious they're not getting anything from some of the larger brands. Nivea products have dwindled for example and are no longer stocking their deodorant and are low on hand cream.

However while household is dwindling, the gardening section is almost fully stocked, same for pets although fish food was out of stock.

Usually at this time of year, Wilko will have a huge back to school promotion where they over stock on stationery goods, but not this year, although stock for most products in that department are what I'd consider to be normal for outside August bar one or two products.

[Martin Phillp]

The administration sale has started at Wilko on most ranges except household ranging from 10%-50%.

A note about returns, exchanges and gift cards has been put on the window, but staff have used a highlighter pen as they're continuing to use the rubbish toner for their printers.

[BBC TV Centre]

I was in a Wilko earlier and the shelves looked fairly full, with the only empty spaces I saw being the pick and mix and the occasional shelf gap. Stuff like toiletries weren't discounted - it was all a bit odd really, perhaps these are just sale or return, or PWC realise they can extract most cash for these items.

There's only so many times one can do the toner shake to sqeeze the last few drops, I wonder when they'll be asked to break out the sharpies and handwrite the signage for the shopfloor?

[JAS84]

The stock checker by the way is complete nonsense, I wanted to buy some back brushes which the stock checker claims there are 15 in stock. They were sold out. While I could have gone to B&M on two buses, I ended up buying one on Amazon.

Yeah, I checked the site for a universal remote control, as we're about to acquire a second hand TV that doesn't have a remote with it. Website said three in stock: it was actually sold out. B&M to the rescue.

[BBC TV Centre]

Not looking good for Wilko.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... etailer-uk

[Martin Phillp]

This week really looked like the beginning of the end. Speaking to a Wilko employee yesterday, they told me that they're working from day to day and that they could end up going to work one day and find the administrators have pulled the shutters down already.

Despite the sale, customer levels at my local store have dropped as stock dwindles.

[Zimba]

I was in a Wilko earlier and the shelves looked fairly full, with the only empty spaces I saw being the pick and mix and the occasional shelf gap. Stuff like toiletries weren't discounted - it was all a bit odd really, perhaps these are just sale or return, or PWC realise they can extract most cash for these items.

There's only so many times one can do the toner shake to sqeeze the last few drops, I wonder when they'll be asked to break out the sharpies and handwrite the signage for the shopfloor?

There's gaps all over the place to be fair, they've just spread the remaining stock out to fill the shelves. It's not a recent thing either it's been going on for the past of 3 years hence they're in the mess they're in now.

It'll be interesting to see whether this will have a knock on effect elsewhere, Wilko don't half have a massive range of own brand stock that has to come from somewhere, not to mention the number of anchor stores in places which are best decribed as dead already. There's numerous examples I can think of in the North East and I can't see anyone wanting them as there's similar sized stores already empty. Redcar, North Shields, Ashington, Blyth, Newton Aycliffe, Thornaby, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, South Shields, Peterlee, Jarrow, Alnwick and Darlington just to name some.

In fact it's probably easier to name the ones actually in a half decent space.

[Martin Phillp]

Wilko is the anchor tenant at The Blenheim Centre in Penge, which is a small shopping centre acquired by a housing building company who want to demolish the shopping centre and stick a tower block on it, so this will only make it even more likely to happen.

It's so small that the tenants are Wilko, Iceland, Peacocks, Card Factory and an independent shoe repair/key cutting outlet.

The company has already signed an agreement with Iceland to return to the site if planning permission goes ahead.

[Martin Phillp]

Retail Week is reporting that Sunrise Records Ltd, the owner of HMV has put in a last minute bid for Wilko.

[Martin Phillp]

A second white-knight bid for Wilko from M2 Capital for £90m which would keep Wilko open as it is.

If neither bid from M2 or Doug Puttman are accepted (Puttman is planning to keep 350 stores out of 400), it's likely that Poundland will acquire 100 stores and B&M 50.

[Martin Phillp]

After M2's bid was dismissed for not having the paperwork ready in time, it's looking likely Wilko will be moving into the ownership of Doug Puttman who owns HMV.