It’s coming up to a year since The Range owner Chris Dawson snapped up the Wilko brand out of administration and set about restoring the value chain.
The self-made billionaire had planned to keep the retailer online only but quickly shifted gears following a nationwide campaign for the brand to return to the high street.
“I was amazed at the love for the Wilko brand…especially in the north, it was like a bloody national outcry. I’m pleased to own it and I’m quite proud to make it work again,” he tells Retail Gazette at the retailer’s latest store opening in Poole.
“It would be an absolutely cardinal sin to not keep this brand alive,” he affirms.
But, as Dawson says, it is now “well and truly alive” and is “getting all the investment”.
Now with six stores under its belt, and the first five turning a profit, the blueprint for Wilko 2.0 is now firmly in place. Dawson says “it’s all systems go now” and has grand ambitions, with plans to open up to 300 Wilko stores over the next five years.
What does Wilko 2.0 look like?
The retailer has taken a somewhat cautious approach to reopening the Wilko brand on the high street, with Dawson sharing that the team “purposefully held back” while rival discount chains such as Poundland that acquired former Wilko outlets rushed to reopen them.
However, for The Range owner CDS – which stands for Chris Dawson Superstores – the first set of openings have acted as a trial for the Wilko team to test new store concepts, with group chief digital and marketing officer Ben Exall revealing the Poole opening marked the start of its rollout phase.
The team has been tweaking the product mix in store after and Dawson admits it didn’t have enough essentials in its first tranche of stores.
“Wilko was extremely famous for health and beauty, cleaning and toiletries, and your sort of bits and bobs DIY – you’re not expecting a full garden set,” he says.
The first three stores in Exeter, Plymouth and Luton boasted more branded products than ever before, a larger space dedicated to seasonal products, and a bulked out in-store home and DIY section.
Exall says: “The first five stores are all about test and learn, trialling new things, asking customers for feedback. Customers told us they wanted more health and beauty and more cleaning, and that’s what this [Poole] store has got.”
Its new owner has also brought back Wilko’s food-to-go range, which its previous management pulled over concerns it wasn’t able to compete with the top supermarkets, and has also introduced a new in-store partnership with Iceland.
Dawson says the team have now got the product mix right in store and adds that in six months “you’ll find 80% of your Wilko products again”.
Exall adds the business has also been expanding its arts and crafts ranges, and food and garden products, as well as investing in more peripheral services “to ensure that customers don’t split their wallet across multiple retailers”.
“We do insurance, we do tool hire, we do key cutting, we do lottery,” he says. However Exall emphasises: “They’re not the reason to come to us. The reason to come to us is your essential everyday product and that’s what we’ve been investing in and increasing our ranges.”
The group is also planning to expand its Café Eighty Nine concept to more of its stores following a successful trial in the Exeter branch.
Ready, steady, go
To help with the retailer’s expansion across the UK, the business recently hired Matalan’s property director Antony Darbyshire to head up the rollout.
Dawson shares “there’s a hell of a lot of stores in the pipeline”, adding that the team have hand-picked the locations and are “aware of what was good and bad for Wilko” previously.
He is tight-lipped on new store locations but he believes the new Wilko format will work far and wide. Dawson says it will target “all the obvious ones in Liverpool, Manchester and all the big cities but [the store concept] will do the Loughboroughs in this world too”.
London will also see the return of Wilko, he promises, as Dawson shares the brand has “already got a massive internet presence there”.
Online has a big role in CDS’s plans for reviving the brand and according to Dawson’s predictions, its ecommerce platform will soon “treble in size”.
The retailer recommenced trading online less than a month after it was snapped up by CDS Superstores, with a website featuring thousands of product lines across the home and garden.
It has quickly expanded to over 100,000 products in 10 months, boosted by Wilko’s first-ever kitchen range, which launched in April, followed by a bathroom range.
Exall says the site now turns over “double the amount” than it did before and its most recent home ranges are “performing strongly”.
The group has bolstered Wilko stores’ digital capabilities and installed self-service terminals points around the shopfloor to allow customers to browse and shop online.
The retailer has also piggybacked off sister brand The Range’s 200-plus store footprint to boost its click-and-collect reach, which is available across both retailers within an hour. The group is also selling Wilko-branded products in The Range’s stores, which Dawson says are “selling like hell”.
The owner shares there more developments on the brand’s click-and-collect service are in the pipeline, including its first collection truck at the upcoming Motocross GP festival this weekend.
“We’ve got lots of orders already,” he says, explaining the group will be bringing in back up stock as it has “one truck completely sold out”.
“They always forget things with their campers,” he notes, explaining the high demand for the service.
“We might be on to something big here,” says Dawson, as Exall jokes “watch out Glastonbury”.
Growing his empire
Larger-than-life self-made billionaire Dawson is known as Del Boy thanks to the distinctive DE11 BOY number plate on his Rolls-Royce, and shares a similar story to his Peckham-based idol.
He started off as a market trader before setting up The Range in his Plymouth hometown in 1989.
Dubbed the working man’s John Lewis, the home, garden and furniture specialist has grown to more than 200 stores across the UK and has netted Dawson a rumoured £2.5bn fortune in the process.
The Wilko acquisition has grown his retail empire, but does he see the opportunity for further expansion?
Last month, The Range owner was reported to have approached Homebase owner Hilco Capital about acquiring the up-for-sale DIY chain.
However, the retail entrepreneur shrugs off the speculation: “We look at every brand. We’re not looking at it no more than anybody else,” he says in his West Country accent.
“We’re looking at loads of things – any angle to open more stores and different brands,” he explains. However, he adds: “I think they put two and two together and made nine.”
That said, when asked where he sees an opportunity to expand his retail portfolio, Dawson identifies garden centres as a ripe area.
“Standalone garden centres, but we have our hands full rolling out [Wilko]. We’re not looking for more work, but garden centres will be the next obvious one for us.”
Watch this space to see if Dawson and his team can work their magic on another retail business. After all, he who dares wins.
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