Home goods store chain Wilko announced Thursday it filed for bankruptcy because it failed to find buyers or new financing long enough, and its roughly 12,000 employees are facing threats to their jobs.
“Over the past six months, Wilko has been very open that we are considering options to accelerate a turnaround plan,” Chief Executive Mark Jackson said in an open letter posted on the retailer’s website Thursday. “We have tried everything to save this incredible company, but we have to admit with regret that we have no choice but to make the difficult decision to file for bankruptcy,” he adds.
“I had no choice”
The executive specified that the company has received “a significant level of expressions of interest, including indicative offers that, we believe, would have met all our financial criteria for the recapitalization, but without the certainty of being able to complete the transaction on time and given our flow cash, we had no choice” but to declare bankruptcy.
“We must now strive to preserve as many jobs as possible (…) by working with designated administrators,” concludes Mark Jackson. The company, which had sales of £1.2bn for the full year to the end of January 2022 (latest figure available), has 400 stores in the UK.
Source: BFM TV
