The former chairwoman of Wilko has apologised for the thousands of people who lost their jobs when the retailer went bust – and said former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s disastrous 2022 mini-budget was one of the reasons behind the company’s collapse.
Worksop-based Wilko went under in August with the loss of 12,500 jobs and the closure of 400 stores. Administrators failed to find a new owner despite interest from several parties, but were able to offload some of the stores to rival chains.
Speaking to MPs on the Business and Trade Committee, ex-chairwoman Lisa Wilkinson said: “I am devastated that we have let each and every one of those people down with the insolvency of Wilko.
“I don’t know how to put into words how sad I am that we have let down all our team members, all our customers, our suppliers, and our advisers.”
Ms Wilkinson is the grand-daughter of James Wilkinson who launched the hardware brand in Leicester in 1930.
Pushed by committee chairman Liam Byrne to apologise directly, Ms Wilkinson said: “You can have the word sorry, of course I am sorry… I am sorry that we are not there supporting these people anymore.”
She said there were a number of reasons for Wilko’s failure, one of which was soaring interest rates after the mini-budget in autumn last year.
She said: “We were about to enter into secured lending arrangements with Macquarie when the 2022 mini-budget happened.
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“Literally we were in the midst of that, and at that point the interest terms on that loan were hiked massively and that became infeasible. So, that was a contributor.”
The committee also heard evidence from the GMB union which has previously criticised the owners for not doing more to save the business.
Mark Jackson, the chain’s former chief executive, told the committee there had been a window of opportunity to save the business, but it could not get the funding it needed.
He said the company’s balance sheet was relatively “well placed” up until 2022, when its finances deteriorated and it began to run out of cash.
He said: “There was definitely a window where a turnaround could have been done.”
Asked why the opportunity was not seized, he said: “Because we couldn’t get the funders to back it. It was pursued; I knocked down an awful lot of doors more than once.
“We had interested parties right up to the beginning of August who were really keen to save the business and, I thought, still a very good chance of doing so.
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“Ultimately, the amount of security in the balance sheet was falling every day… the amount secured lenders were prepared to lend was reducing.”
He said that “the start of Wilko’s problems” might have come with “an enormous mistake” that it made in 2018.
Mr Jackson said: “There was a big loss in 2018/19, which was referred to – and I have to say it’s conjecture – as the start of Wilko’s problems.
“It bought all of its Far East products in US dollars. It took out forward-rate contracts to fix the price it was buying at, and it made an enormous mistake.
“And there was, I believe, a loss in the region of £40 million.”
Mr Jackson, who joined the company in December 2022, also revealed that Wilko came close to finding a rescue deal, but ultimately failed.
He said: “I knew what I was coming into. I came in knowing that the business was in distress and that there was a window of opportunity to turn it around.
“I still think it was a decent opportunity. A number of things went against us. I still think this business should exist and I think somebody should have invested in it.”
He added: “The management team went to around 20 private equity types of investors as well as debt providers, and we got very close.”