Landlords of household retailer Wilko may be able to sleep easier, as it emerged that the struggling chain has secured £40m funding and brought in a new chair to help stabilise the business.
Hilco Capital, the restructuring company which owns Homebase and Cath Kidston, has provided the £40m two-year revolving credit facility to the family-owned chain of around 400 stores.
Lisa Wilkinson, the granddaughter of Wilko’s founder, has stepped down as chairwoman and will hand over to Chris Howell, the former chairman of Bensons for Beds. Howell will be working with new chief executive Mark Jackson, appointed last month, who was formerly chief executive of Bensons for Beds.
Wilkinson, who will continue to represent the family on the company’s board, warned in November that Wilko could run out of cash by the end of 2023 if economic and trading conditions continued to adversely affect the business. It moved into a £30m loss for the 12 months to end of January 2022, after a profit of £2.6m the previous year.
A £48m sale and leaseback of its distribution centre in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, with DHL was completed in November as part of a drive to plug the cash shortfall.
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