Thousands of jobs at Wilko at risk

Wilko store

Household goods retailer Wilko has confirmed that thousands of jobs nationwide are at risk after it has entered a 60-day redundancy consultation with 3,900 members of staff.

The high street value retailer, which has stores in Rochdale and Middleton, is working alongside trade union, the GMB to introduce a new ‘simplified’ retail team structure across more than 400 stores in the UK.

Anthony Houghton, Retail Director, said: “Wilko is committed to the future growth of the business and reviewing how we stay relevant to our customers. We do this by making sure all retail operations are fit for the future in order to provide customers with the best possible service.

“Despite the challenging retail landscape, Wilko has seen both positive customer numbers and like for like sales growth this year. This is not translating into positive results despite all the hard work to reduce costs, grow own-brand and digital sales.

“Following independent studies, we identified a legacy of retail structures that created complexity to manage which aren’t simple, fair or transparent for our team members. The simpler newly defined store structure will give teams greater variety within their roles and result in more team hours on the shop floor, delivering a better customer experience.”

He continued: “As a family run business, we care greatly about team members and know that change is never easy. We are working with our recognised trade union the GMB, listening to team members and offering support at all levels. We are entering into a long period of consultation and wherever possible are aiming to redeploy team members into new roles and offering help and support to those seeking new opportunities.

“These changes do not affect our commitment to the growth of Wilko, online shopping and bolstering infrastructure for growth, including new stores, we will continue to deliver a more efficient consumer experience and respond to customer’s changing needs.”

Wilko, which opened its first store in 1930 in Leicester, also confirmed they are introducing over 1,000 new senior supervisor roles and a ‘significant amount’ of customer service roles ‘to deliver an enhanced customer experience in store’.