Wilko set to appoint administrators

Budget household and garden retailer Wilko has announced that it has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators. 

The news comes as, earlier this year, the retailer was considering selling the company in a bid to secure its future. 

The retailer, which operates roughly 400 stores across the country and employs about 12,000 people, was considering entering into a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in April of this year to renegotiate rents to cut costs across the group. 

The struggling discount chain also reportedly reached out to PwC at that time to explore its restructuring options that would allow it to renegotiate agreements with creditors. 

This follows many efforts by the retailer to cut costs across its stores in recent months, including cutting over 400 roles at the start of the year.

In January, Wilko also secured £40m worth of funding from Homebase owner Hilco UK after it swung to a £36.8m loss in its last full-year results, as a dip in consumer demand impacted trading.

As a result of its poor performance, the retailer warned it could run out of cash by the end of this year if trading conditions deteriorated further.

Mark Jackson, CEO of Wilko, said: “While we can confirm we’ve had a significant level of interest, including indicative offers that we believe would meet all our financial criteria to recapitalise the business, at present, we don’t today have an offer that provides the necessary liquidity in the time we have available, given the mounting cash pressures we’re faced with. 

“Unfortunately, with this in mind, today we’re having to take the difficult decision to file an NOI. That said, while we’ll continue to progress these indicative offers, without the surety of a recapitalisation being able to be completed within the necessary time frame and given the cash position, we’ve been left with no choice but to take this action.”