Wilko Closures: Stores in Portsmouth, Fareham, Havant and Waterlooville and others to close, union says

It means redundancies now look likely for all 12,500 staff at the high-street chain. Wilko has stores in stores in the Arundel Shopping Centre in Arundel Street, The Meridian Shopping Centre in Havant, Dukes Walk in Waterlooville and Market Squay Shopping Centre in West Street, Fareham.

The GMB union, which represents more than 3,000 Wilko staff, revealed the damning update after a meeting with the retailer’s administrators on Monday morning.

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The retailer had already confirmed that 52 stores would shut this week, leading to 1,016 redundancies, with hundreds of other jobs losses across the business. This came after B&M agreed a deal to purchase 51 shops but without keeping the Wilko employees – confirming 1,016 redundancies.

The union said on Monday that its warehouses in Worksop and Newport are now both due to close on Friday, September 15. It added that a further 124 stores are due to close next week. News broke earlier today that the rescue deal organised with the owner of HMV, Doug Putman, collapsed.

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Nadine Houghton, national officer for the GMB union, said: “Due to the incompetency of Wilko bosses the deal has now run out of time. If the owners had been transparent and honest, thousands of loyal Wilko workers may not now be in this awful position.

“This is another devastating blow for them, who have seen their lives and futures gambled on the whims of millionaires and billionaires.

“Wilko bosses should be ashamed that this once great family business now appears to be beyond saving.”