The granddaughter of Wilko’s founder has stepped down as chairwoman of the retailer after the company secured emergency funding to avert a cash crunch at the business.
Lisa Wilkinson has given up the role after Wilko warned that it could run out of cash by the end of this year.
Chris Howell, the former chairman of Bensons for Beds, will take over from her. He joins Mark Jackson, the new chief executive who was appointed to the board last month.
The Wilkinson family has built Wilko into a nationwide chain of 413 stores with 16,000 staff after establishing the company’s first hardware store in Leicester in 1930.
Jackson, who was formerly chief executive of Bensons for Beds, is a turnaround specialist who was the chief financial officer of the UK division of the South African conglomerate Steinhoff International. Steinhoff underwent a significant restructuring after an accounting fraud was discovered at the business in 2017.
Advertisement
Wilko has also strengthened its board by appointing Natasja Laheij as a non-executive director and chairwoman of its audit and risk committee. Laheij was previously a senior financial professional at Amazon and is now a senior finance director at Google.
Wilko’s new executives have been given the task of stabilising the homewares retailer after it swung to a loss of £30 million.
The family-owned chain said in its annual accounts that its funds would be “extinguished” by the end of December this year if the economic environment remained volatile and sales declined significantly.
The chain initially sought to alleviate its financial pressures by agreeing a £48 million 15-year sale and leaseback agreement on its distribution centre in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, with the logistics supplier DHL.
Hilco, the restructuring and investment company, has now agreed to provide a £40 million two-year revolving credit facility to the business.
Advertisement
Wilkinson will remain on the company’s board as a representative of the founding family.
She said: “Our history is steeped in serving customers and communities going back to 1930. Right now we’re making necessary changes to restore confidence and safeguard the future of the business. That includes making sure we have the right leadership in place — one aligned team with the right expertise to deliver the retail experience our customers are demanding of us today.”
Wilko was spared much of the impact of pandemic lockdowns after its products were deemed essential and the government allowed its stores to stay open. The company returned the support it received from the furlough scheme to taxpayers and continued to pay dividends to the founding family.
The business was hampered last year by the rising cost of labour and the supply chain disruption that rocked the retail sector after the pandemic. A string of high street businesses have been forced to pursue insolvency procedures amid the disruption.
Made.com and Joules both fell into administration before Christmas. Next purchased Made.com’s brand and website out of administration for £3.4 million and joined forces with Joules’ founder in a recuse deal that saved 1,450 jobs at the company he started in 1989. Joule and Next acquired about a hundred of the fashion chain’s shops for £34 million following a sales process led by the company’s administrators Interpath Advisory.
Advertisement
The retail sector must now contend with a decline in consumer spending amid rising interest rates and energy costs. Banks have also become more cautious about extending credit to the sector and some of the country’s biggest restructuring firms have forecast an uplift in revenue as companies are forced to address weaknesses in their balance sheets.
