B&M acquires 51 Wilko stores as Putman deal flounders

It is unclear how many jobs will be saved by this acquisition, with B&M yet to confirm if workers will be kept on.

B&M’s announcement to the stock market said it had paid £13m for the sites and implied that it could relaunch the sites under its brand within weeks.

“The consideration is fully funded from existing cash reserves and the acquisition is not expected to be conditional on any regulatory clearances,” its statement said.

“An update on the timing of these new store openings will be provided in the H1 interim results announcement on 9 November 2023.”

A rescue deal from Putman was looking likely until the weekend, when negotiations stalled after suppliers — including Unilever and Procter & Gamble — “demanded their debts were repaid and paid upfront” to ensure supply to its stores in the near future.

A retail executive told Sky News that Putman was now engaged in talks about obtaining 200 stores, despite previous negotiations involving the takeover of approximately 300 stores.  

The Canadian businessman is said to be discussing a slimmed-down deal with PwC, although there is no certainty that this would go ahead.

Retail Week reported last week that UK-based marketplace OnBuy was also looking to acquire Wilko.com and “explore a synergy” with Putman, but progress is yet to be made.

Poundland parent Pepco and The Range have also been linked to offers to buy parts of Wilko.

More redundanices

PwC announced the first redundancies last week, which saw 283 jobs lost on Monday, with more redundancies announced on Tuesday.

Although administators are “actively working with potential buyers”, PwC confirmed the closure of 52 stores and 1,016 staff based at these sites, along with 299 redundancies at the two distribution centres in Worksop and Newport.

The final trading for these stores will be September 12 and September 14, with the locations of these stores revealed on September 6. Redundancies at the distribution centres will occur on September 7.

Joint administrator Edward Williams said: “In the absence of viable offers for the whole business, very sadly store closures and redundancies of team members from those stores are now necessary, in addition to the already announced redundancies at the support centre and distribution centres.

”We know this has been a deeply unsettling time for everyone concerned and would like to express our gratitude to all wilko team members for the dedication and support they have continued to give the business in the most trying of circumstances.”