Hampshire businesses pay price of Wilko’s collapse - with one firm owed over £150,000

Wilko stores across the Portsmouth area closed their doors for the final time last Sunday. It was announced in August that the homeware retail chain would collapse, with an estimated 12,000 jobs put at risk and around 400 stores to be emptied.

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On top of the redundancies, the business has unpaid bills to companies across the country. Some of those affected are in Hampshire.

Draper Tools Ltd, in Chandler's Ford, is the biggest loser in the county, with it owed £157,872. Money is also owed to Rokill Ltd, in Ringwood, which is out of pocket by £240 and Toor Estates, in Eastleigh, is owed £8,250.

The Wilko brand will not disappear entirely from the UK high street after The Range agreed to buy Wilko’s brand, website and intellectual property, with plans to sell the acquired brand in its stores.

Wilko was originally founded by James Kemsey Wilkinson in Leicester in 1930 and employed 12,500 workers before its collapse.