Wilko names former Bensons for Beds boss to replace departing Saint-Marc

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Wilko has hired former Bensons for Beds chief executive Mark Jackson to replace Jerome Saint-Marc who is standing down from the business with immediate effect.

The change at the top comes as the embattled value household and garden retailer prepares to make “strategic changes” to the business, which include accelerating its “omnichannel offer”.

The company acknowledged it had not been performing to its full potential against a backdrop of major supply chain disruption and significant high street footfall decline.

Earlier this year, Wilko sold its distribution centre in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, to logistics giant DHL for £48m.

The sale and 15-year leaseback agreement was a demonstration of the retailer’s intentions to “turn around the business”, it said.

Jackson helped lead the sale of Bensons for Beds and successfully delivered its transformation process.

Wilko family director Lisa Wilkinson said: “Our history is steeped in serving customers and communities going back to 1930. We started out in the great depression and the second world war, our founder JK Wilkinson would expect us to make the right, and sometimes difficult, changes to restore confidence and safeguard the future of the business.

“That includes making sure we have the right leadership in place with the right experience and relevant turnaround expertise to deliver the retail experience our customers are demanding of us today.”

Wilkinson thanked Saint-Marc for his “tireless work leading Wilko through some tough trading conditions for retail, including the pandemic and the widespread impact on almost all aspects of our business” and wished him “every success in the future.”

Wilko swung to a loss at the beginning of the year as the tail end of lockdowns, supply chain disruption and plummeting consumer demand all took their toll.

In the year to January 29, 2022, Wilko reported a loss of £36.8m while EBITDA nearly halved from £48.3m to £24.2m. Like-for-like sales declined 3.1% year on year to £1.32bn.

Wilko is the UK’s 23rd biggest retailer with more than 400 stores, 16,000 staff and a 20,000-strong product range.