Five Wilko stores to close in the South West

Five Wilko stores are set to close in the South West after the retailer went into administration.

Administrators for the business have been trying to strike deals with potential buyers and yesterday (September 5) announced that B&M had agreed to buy up to 51 Wilko sores in a deal worth up to £13m.

On Wednesday (September 6), the administrators announced the locations of 52 shops that are set to close. In addition, there will be redundancies of 1,016 staff based at these sites, and a further 299 redundancies at the two distribution centres in Worksop and Newport.

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The five stores earmarked for closure in the region are in Falmouth, Weston-super-Mare, Avonmeads in Bristol, St Austell and Truro.

Falmouth and Weston-super-Mare will close on September 12, while Avonmeads, St Austell and Truro will cease to trade on September 14.

The business has around 400 stores and employed 12,500 people when it went under and the closures will take place on Tuesday, September 12, and Thursday, September 14.

Edward Williams, joint administrator, 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.”

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