Over 400 jobs to go at Wilko
Troubled discount retailer Wilko is set to lay off some 400 staff as part of a major restructuring drive, it has emerged.
Workers at the Nottinghamshire firm’s call centre are understood to be affected, along with around 150 assistant store managers and the equivalent of 150 full-time supervisory roles.
Team supervisors are facing cuts to their hours.
Wilko CEO Mark Jackson said: “We’ve identified significant changes to the Wilko operating model to enable us to stabilise the business and then thrive again. This includes some proposed changes to our management structure at both our stores and head office.”
Jackson added that the company would “fully support” the affected individuals and “act swiftly” to put a new organisational structure in place.
The GMB Union, which represents some Wilko staff, is understood to be consulting with the high street giant in a bid to minimise the job cuts.
The news comes shortly after Wilko’s distribution centre in Worksop was sold to Canadian private equity firm Brookfield for £88m just two months after the retailer completed a £48m sale and leaseback deal with delivery giant DHL for the 1.1m sq ft property.
In November, Wilko said the DHL deal was the first in a series of “transformational efficiencies” it had planned in order to cut costs.
The retailer has since installed former Bensons for Beds boss Jackson as CEO and secured a £40m revolving credit facility in an attempt to get a grip on its ailing finances.
Those developments followed warnings Wilko could run out of cash over the Christmas period – alarm bells that grew louder when its year-end results revealed a £37m loss.
