Discount store chain Wilko has been saved after its retailer rival B&M agreed to buy up to 51 of its stores from administrators for £13million.
Wilko collapsed into administration on August 11, putting 12,500 jobs at risk
The discount chain has stores at Carlton Square and in Arnold.
“The consideration is fully funded from existing cash reserves and the acquisition is not expected to be conditional on any regulatory clearances”, B&M said in an update to investors.
Talks to save the entirety of Wilko’s business subsequently collapsed with GMB warning on August 23 that the firm was set to start laying off the following week.
Hopes for Wilko’s future were, however, revived on August 25, after HMV owner Doug Putman submitted a new bid to save 350 of Wilko’s 400 stores and save 10,000 jobs in the process.
Then just days later, on August 27, Anglo-Canadian private equity fund M2 Capital placed a £90million last-minute bid to save all 400.
M2 Capital is a private equity firm with offices in Mayfair, which owns luxury hotel chain Como.
Sadly they missed a deadline set by administrators to show it had sufficient funds to snap up Wilko
Wilko started out life as a single hardware store in Leicester in 1930.
