Banbury Wilko store to close permanently on September 14

Wilko has confirmed a full list of 52 high street stores which will close next week including the Banbury store, costing 1,016 jobs. 24 stores will close for good on Tuesday, September 12, with a further 28 to close two days later.

Other redundancies elsewhere in the company have also been confirmed by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). There will be another 299 jobs lost at two Wilko warehouses, plus a further 17 redundancies at its support centre.

Wilko: Full list of 52 stores to close next week as staff informed of job losses- is your local affected?

This comes on top of 269 job losses already announced at the Wilko support centre, plus 14 other redundancies at a subsidiary firm, which were confirmed by PwC last week. Wilko collapsed into administration last month, putting more than 400 stores and 12,500 jobs at risk.

The future of the homeware chain has been up in the air since then, with rumours a majority of stores could be bought by the owner of HMV in a move that would save 8,000 jobs. However, the rescue deal is said to have hit a stumbling block.

It was announced this week that B&M is to buy up to 51 stores in a deal worth £13million. However, B&M has not confirmed which Wilko shops it has bought, or if it will save any jobs. The stores are expected to be rebranded as B&M.

In an open letter from CEO of Wilko Mark Jackson said: “Over the past six months Wilko has been very open that we’ve been considering options to accelerate

a turnaround plan given that we needed to make significant changes to the way we operate to restore confidence and stabilise our business.

"We left no stone unturned when it came to preserving this incredible business but must concede that with regret, we’ve no choice but to take the difficult decision to enter into

administration.

"I’d like to take this opportunity on behalf of the directors and the Wilkinson family to thank all of our customers, suppliers, partners and our hardworking team members across our stores, logistics and support centre who remained loyal to Wilko.

“It’s been an honour to have worked alongside you all as we fought to realise and to maximise the significant opportunities that existed to re-establish a profitable Wilko.”