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<\/div>\nThe granddaughter of the founder of Wilko has said the chain\u2019s management team and staff tried everything they could to revive the struggling discount retailer before it collapsed into administration earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Times, Lisa Wilkinson said: \u201cEverybody has thrown everything and everything again at trying to make Wilko a success.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team members, the suppliers, the landlords . . . everybody has thrown their soul and heart at it \u2014 and if I get tearful, that\u2019s how I feel, because people have worked really bloody hard, round the clock, to keep this thing going.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it couldn\u2019t be kept going it\u2019s because it couldn\u2019t be kept going,\u201d she told the publication.<\/p>\n
Wilko plunged into administration at the beginning of August after several months of teetering on the edge of collapse.<\/p>\n
The value retailer fell behind while rival chains including B&M, Poundland and The Range found success amid the cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free<\/strong><\/h5>\nSign up\u00a0here\u00a0to g<\/span>et the latest news straight into your inbox each morning<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nHowever, Wilkinson claims Wilko\u2019s demise was down to lots of little mistakes instead of larger factors.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cWhen people are looking at how this happened, they want it to be a single big thing that was seismic, and it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a whole load of things that have just added up to a seismic thing over time and which mean we have ended up in the place where we\u2019ve ended up, which is a very sad place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The retailer plummeted to a \u00a336.8m pre-tax loss in the year to January 2022 after sales over the period slipped 3% to \u00a31.3bn. It paid \u00a33m dividends to the family the same year.<\/p>\n
Despite racking up significant losses, Wilkinson told The Times that Wilko still had more than \u00a3100m in assets and \u00a358m in cash.<\/p>\n
\u201cHindsight is a great bedfellow and I like to think we did all the things we should do when we paid dividends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board checked that we\u2019d got profits or reserved profits, there was sufficient cash, we went through the right governance, the auditors checked it off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a bit of me lying awake at night saying I wish we\u2019d never taken a penny of dividends out? It might have made us survive a couple of months longer,\u201d she said, adding that it \u201creally wouldn\u2019t have made a difference\u201d.<\/p>\n
Administrators at PwC are facing mounting pressure to accept one of the several rescue bids its received for Wilko after private equity firm M2 Capital submitted a last-minute offer understood to be worth \u00a390m.<\/p>\n
However, Wilkinson claims Wilko\u2019s demise was down to lots of little mistakes instead of larger factors.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cWhen people are looking at how this happened, they want it to be a single big thing that was seismic, and it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a whole load of things that have just added up to a seismic thing over time and which mean we have ended up in the place where we\u2019ve ended up, which is a very sad place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The retailer plummeted to a \u00a336.8m pre-tax loss in the year to January 2022 after sales over the period slipped 3% to \u00a31.3bn. It paid \u00a33m dividends to the family the same year.<\/p>\n
Despite racking up significant losses, Wilkinson told The Times that Wilko still had more than \u00a3100m in assets and \u00a358m in cash.<\/p>\n
\u201cHindsight is a great bedfellow and I like to think we did all the things we should do when we paid dividends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board checked that we\u2019d got profits or reserved profits, there was sufficient cash, we went through the right governance, the auditors checked it off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a bit of me lying awake at night saying I wish we\u2019d never taken a penny of dividends out? It might have made us survive a couple of months longer,\u201d she said, adding that it \u201creally wouldn\u2019t have made a difference\u201d.<\/p>\n
Administrators at PwC are facing mounting pressure to accept one of the several rescue bids its received for Wilko after private equity firm M2 Capital submitted a last-minute offer understood to be worth \u00a390m.<\/p>\n