The former chairwoman of Wilko has apologised for the thousands of people who lost their jobs when the retailer went bust 鈥 and said former Prime Minister Liz Truss鈥檚 disastrous 2022 mini-budget was one of the reasons behind the company鈥檚 collapse.
Worksop-based Wilko went under in August with the loss of 12,500 jobs and the closure of 400 stores. Administrators failed to find a new owner despite interest from several parties, but were able to offload some of the stores to rival chains.
Speaking to MPs on the Business and Trade Committee, ex-chairwoman Lisa Wilkinson said: 鈥淚 am devastated that we have let each and every one of those people down with the insolvency of Wilko.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how to put into words how sad I am that we have let down all our team members, all our customers, our suppliers, and our advisers.鈥
Ms Wilkinson is the grand-daughter of James Wilkinson who launched the hardware brand in Leicester in 1930.
Pushed by committee chairman Liam Byrne to apologise directly, Ms Wilkinson said: 鈥淵ou can have the word sorry, of course I am sorry鈥 I am sorry that we are not there supporting these people anymore.鈥
She said there were a number of reasons for Wilko鈥檚 failure, one of which was soaring interest rates after the mini-budget in autumn last year.
She said: 鈥淲e were about to enter into secured lending arrangements with Macquarie when the 2022 mini-budget happened.
鈥淟iterally we were in the midst of that, and at that point the interest terms on that loan were hiked massively and that became infeasible. So, that was a contributor.鈥
The committee also heard evidence from the GMB union which has previously criticised the owners for not doing more to save the business.
Mark Jackson, the chain鈥檚 former chief executive, told the committee there had been a window of opportunity to save the business, but it could not get the funding it needed.
He said the company鈥檚 balance sheet was relatively 鈥渨ell placed鈥 up until 2022, when its finances deteriorated and it began to run out of cash.
He said: 鈥淭here was definitely a window where a turnaround could have been done.鈥
Asked why the opportunity was not seized, he said: 鈥淏ecause we couldn鈥檛 get the funders to back it. It was pursued; I knocked down an awful lot of doors more than once.
鈥淲e had interested parties right up to the beginning of August who were really keen to save the business and, I thought, still a very good chance of doing so.
鈥淯ltimately, the amount of security in the balance sheet was falling every day鈥 the amount secured lenders were prepared to lend was reducing.鈥
He said that 鈥渢he start of Wilko鈥檚 problems鈥 might have come with 鈥渁n enormous mistake鈥 that it made in 2018.
Mr Jackson said: 鈥淭here was a big loss in 2018/19, which was referred to 鈥 and I have to say it鈥檚 conjecture 鈥 as the start of Wilko鈥檚 problems.
鈥淚t bought all of its Far East products in US dollars. It took out forward-rate contracts to fix the price it was buying at, and it made an enormous mistake.
鈥淎nd there was, I believe, a loss in the region of 拢40 million.鈥
Mr Jackson, who joined the company in December 2022, also revealed that Wilko came close to finding a rescue deal, but ultimately failed.
He said: 鈥淚 knew what I was coming into. I came in knowing that the business was in distress and that there was a window of opportunity to turn it around.
鈥淚 still think it was a decent opportunity. A number of things went against us. I still think this business should exist and I think somebody should have invested in it.鈥
He added: 鈥淭he management team went to around 20 private equity types of investors as well as debt providers, and we got very close.鈥
