Wilko to axe 400 jobs

The budget garden and homeware store told staff it plans to cut hours for team supervisors in 150 of its stores, leading to around 150 full-time job losses.

The cuts also include 150 store managers and around 95 workers from its contact centre in Nottinghamshire, as well as head office management roles.

The family-run store chain borrowed £40 million from restructuring specialist Hilco, the owner of Homebase and Cath Kidston, in January as it faced a cash squeeze and struggled to pay supplier.

Declining consumer confidence amid raging inflation has led many retailers to pare back profit expectations prompting struggling chains to accelerate efforts to strengthen their balance sheets.

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Mark Jackson, the chief executive of Wilko, said: “We’ve already begun our turnaround programme to drive wilko forward.  As part of this we quickly identified significant changes to the wilko operating model to enable us to stabilise the business, and then thrive again.  This includes some planned and considered changes to our management structure at both our stores and head office.

“We can’t comment on the numbers of team members affected as conversations are still ongoing, but it goes without saying, we’re fully supporting any affected individuals. 

"We know change will be unsettling to our team members and the wider business, and we’re acting swiftly to put in place the new organisational structure.”

The GMB union said it was consulting with the retailer, which employs 16,000 staff in total, in an effort to reduce job losses.

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GMB national officer Nadine Houghton said: “Wilko is going through significant changes at the moment and ultimately the business is in a fight for survival,”

“We are seeing continued and increasing job losses throughout the retail sector and this is something that warrants an urgent, strategic response from the government.”

New Look is reportedly looking at cutting 500 jobs at its distribution centre in Newcastle Under Lyme.

The cuts come as the high street retailer has scrapped its night shifts at the distribution site.

New Look said it plans to create around 300 new positions at this site and those who have been affected by the cuts will be given a chance to apply.

Read more: Nationwide to cut 450 jobs 

A New Look spokesperson said: “New Look has changed significantly over the past few years. We have accelerated our ecommerce business and right-sized our store estate.

“With this shift, it has become increasingly clear that the processes at the Distribution Centre no longer suit our operational needs. 

“Therefore, we are proposing a necessary change to working hours in the Distribution Centre, including the removal of the night shift. Regrettably, we expect this will result in a number of redundancies at the site.

"We are focusing on supporting our affected colleagues at this time and we expect to be able to offer a considerable number of these individuals new roles on the day shift.”