// Wilko hires advisers from Teneo to help cut costs across the business
// It has been struggling with inflation and recently deferred payments to suppliers
Wilko has drafted in advisers from Teneo as it scurries to find ways to cut costs amid the cost-of-living crisis.
The high street retailer is seeking cost-cutting and restructuring options in an effort to shore up its balance sheet, Retail Week reported.
The rising inflation, shipment delays and store closures during the Queen’s funeral have affected Wilko’s business.
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Teneo is assessing options for the retailer.
Wilko has been struggling with inflation and recently deferred payments to suppliers to protect its squeezed cash flow.
It decided to delay payments and has told suppliers that bills due to be paid between 11 September and 8 October would instead be made in the following month.
Wilko has also changed its terms so that suppliers will be paid in a minimum of 60 days.
It said the changes better reflect a shift in the wider retail industry standard from monthly payments to every six weeks.
Wilko has closed 15 stores so far this year after failing to agree to new lease terms with landlords and drafted in experts from Interpath Advisory to refinance its £37.5 million revolving credit facility.
5 Comments. Leave new
Penelope pit stop and rumpelstiltskin are right on all counts.
Wilko are too expensive & the company messes around with too many promotions instead of selling stock at a saleable price to begin with. Take Xmas trees. Fake trees for £100+! Now on the 2nd round of promotions where these trees are priced at what they should have been to begin with. Customers aren’t stupid. Yet the cost of printing those tickets, couriering them to all the stores, the time it takes staff to put the tickets out etc .
Wilko please go back to your roots. The writing is on the wall and you need to give shoppers what they want instead of pricing yourself out of the market
The end is nigh.
I think you may be correct.
This company waste money like you wouldn’t believe. Over the years there have been ridiculous uniform changes, TV ads which cost god knows what and are COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY, flashy cars for regional and area managers, rebranding all the stores, to name but a few. They have already reduced store staff to a level that means customer service has gone out of the window, the stores are filthy and corners are continually cut.
They need to get their priorities straight. Pile it high, sell it cheap is what people want, especially now. A straight forward, no nonsense approach is what’s required, invest in shop floor staff and decent training, at least show a modicum of willingness to listen to staff (that do the job in stores) and to retain them because after more than 90 years trading, you’d think they would have realised that staff are the number one asset!
It is worse from the inside. Either trip the company line or be labelled ‘fixed mindset’ it is rather amusing to see it going under knowing that I disagreed with every ridiculous decision the company have made. 27 years service and hate that I now hate working for this business