wilko Sheffield: Closing date and job losses announced as retailer implodes

A closing date has been announced for the first of five doomed wilkos in Sheffield.

The shop on Bradfield Road, Hillsborough, will shut for good on Thursday September 21. Some 20 employees will be made redundant the following day, administrators said.

It is one of 124 stores to close on or before that date, according to PwC. It comes after they ‘explored all potential opportunities to save the business’.

The closure of the remaining 222 stores - including four more in Sheffield - will be announced ‘in due course’, they added.

Shops in Sheffield include Haymarket in the city centre - which has a large Post Office - Meadowhall, Crystal Peaks, Malin Bridge and St James Retail Park at Norton. 

The privately-owned firm had 400 stores and employed 12,000 before it ran into financial difficulties.

A PwC spokesperson said: ‘Despite extensive efforts, it has become clear that no significant part of the wilko operations can be rescued as a going concern. As a result, the joint administrators have today informed all staff that they will sadly commence the closure of all wilko stores, the two distribution centres and the majority of activities of the Support Centre. 

‘It is anticipated that all stores will be closed by early October, resulting in the redundancies of a further 9,100 employees in those stores’.