High Street chain collapse sweepstake

cwathen · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 09.17

Last week's discussion on store closures is already academic, the Putman deal has collapsed.

https://news.sky.com/story/more-wilko-j ... s-12958920

WillPS · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 10.19

Sadly I was right :(

I should imagine the bulk of stores will close very quickly now as there's hardly any stock to burn through, perhaps leaving a rump.

Martin Phillp · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 12.03

WillPS wrote: Mon 11 Sep, 2023 10.19 Sadly I was right :(

I should imagine the bulk of stores will close very quickly now as there's hardly any stock to burn through, perhaps leaving a rump.

Sky is reporting that all stores will close by early October.

Martin Phillp · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 16.48

Wilko stores are closing at 5pm to inform staff.

Martin Phillp · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 18.25

The two warehouses in Worksop and Newport (Wales) will close on Friday 15th September. So assuming that the remaining stores are getting a trickle of remaining stock coming in, the final deliveries should be then.

Zimba · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 20.36

Martin Phillp wrote: Mon 11 Sep, 2023 18.25 The two warehouses in Worksop and Newport (Wales) will close on Friday 15th September. So assuming that the remaining stores are getting a trickle of remaining stock coming in, the final deliveries should be then.

I'd imagine they'll still be getting stock in as they'll end up sending stock from store to store when they drop the numbers. Remember the last stores of Woolworth's just being full of boxes and stuff thrown everywhere which was blatantely stuff from other stores.

Feel for the staff, the ones on the closure list tomorrow are the lucky ones now imo. I'd hate to be the poor souls who have to scrape through to the end with 'bargain hunters' and selling everything but the kitchen sink (which they no doubt would if they could) with absolutely no hope.

cwathen · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 21.05

Zimba wrote:the ones on the closure list tomorrow are the lucky ones now imo

Honestly, the lucky ones are probably those working in the 50 odd stores B&M have bought. 'Not being clear' if the Wilko staff are part of the deal and will join B&M under TUPE as is being widely reported is actually very clear...they're not and they will be made redundant from Wilko. Anything more positive would be announced. But since B&M have obviously handpicked the locations as places to expand into and will need a ready source of staff to get a large number of new stores up & running quickly, of course applications from the ex-Wilko staff will be extremely welcome. In fact I'd be amazed if they don't reach out to them as their preferred source of staff.

If all goes well most of them will get a redundancy settlement from Wilko immediately followed by walking straight into a new job in the same building with little to no period of unemployment.

Martin Phillp · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 21.48

More store closures:

Sunday September 17th:

Accrington
Ashington
Blackwood
Bognor Regis
Bradford
Bury St Edmunds
Coalville
Crawley
Droylsden
Ellesmere Port
Falkirk
Ferndown
Hanley
Humberstone
Huyton
Kensington High Street
Kings Heath
Lakeside
Leigh
Letchworth
Maidenhead
Market Harborough
Melton Mowbray
Newport
Orpington
Pontefract
Pontypool
Redruth
Rugeley
Shirley
Southport
Sovereign Harbour
Torquay
Wimbledon
Wombwell
Woodhouse Lane - Leeds
Worcester
Workington.

Martin Phillp · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 21.51

The rest of the closures can be found at https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/23909031 ... test-news/ as the forum doesn't like so many characters.

Zimba · Mon 11 Sep, 2023 22.21

cwathen wrote: Mon 11 Sep, 2023 21.05
Zimba wrote:the ones on the closure list tomorrow are the lucky ones now imo
Honestly, the lucky ones are probably those working in the 50 odd stores B&M have bought. 'Not being clear' if the Wilko staff are part of the deal and will join B&M under TUPE as is being widely reported is actually very clear...they're not and they will be made redundant from Wilko. Anything more positive would be announced. But since B&M have obviously handpicked the locations as places to expand into and will need a ready source of staff to get a large number of new stores up & running quickly, of course applications from the ex-Wilko staff will be extremely welcome. In fact I'd be amazed if they don't reach out to them as their preferred source of staff.

If all goes well most of them will get a redundancy settlement from Wilko immediately followed by walking straight into a new job in the same building with little to no period of unemployment.

Yeah that's true mind, guess it depends how quick B&M want to turn around the stores. I know so far they've just been saying that they were going to announce it in November reports. Quite a long time to wait.

Martin Phillp · Tue 12 Sep, 2023 15.43

71 stores sold to Poundland.