// Wilko swings to full-year profit thanks to cost-cutting drive
// Reported a full-year pre-tax profit of £34.8m, up from a loss of £65m the previous year
Wilko has revealed an increase in profits in its full-year results, which the British retailer attributed to cost-cutting.
The discount chain reported a pre-tax profit of £34.8 million in the 52 weeks to February 2, up from a loss of £65 million the previous year, according to Retail Week.
READ MORE:
Wilko also recorded a 2.3 per cent fall in turnover year on year to £1.6 billion.
The retailer cut its debt pile and ended the financial year with positive free cash flow of £26.9 million, which is an increase of £52.1 million on the previous year.
Although the specifics on the cost cuts have not been revealed by Wilko, a spokeswoman said: “Cost and cash discipline has played a significant role in our improved financial position.
“This has been accomplished through embedding more robust financial controls and challenge across all areas of the business.”
The retailer has opened eight new stores during the period and closed seven, making its overall store portfolio a total of 416.
Wilko’s own-brand products accounted for 54.7 per cent of its overall sales in the year, up from 52.7 per cent the previous year.
“We have focused this past year on controlling margin, costs and cash, helping us return to profitability,” Wilko chief financial officer Alex Russo said.
GlobalData senior retail analyst Hannah Thomson said: ‘‘Wilko is emerging from another turbulent year — one full of senior management changes — in which it suffered a £63.4 million dip in UK sales to £1555.7 million.
“However, in spite of this, Wilko has returned to profitability delivering an increase of £99.8 million in pre-tax profits, citing improvements in cost control.
“Despite a portfolio of 415 stores, Wilko continues to be threatened by rival value general merchandisers B&M and The Range, who are pressing ahead with ambitious expansion plans and opening larger format stores where shoppers can find everything under one roof.”
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
7 Comments. Leave new
They have been cutting staffs hours to save on money and the staff are treated poorly and struggle while wilko won’t get replacement staff to cover people who are on annual leave or off sick.
They need to put staff first and customers
Used to be a lovely company but now they treat staff do badly and overworked due to staff shortages that staff members have been reduced to tears.
i worked for them for almost 15 years, and like others have said they treated staff unfairly. The team i was on there were 9 members of staff, 6 of them left, including me, with most forced to take redundancy, a lot of team members (myself included) were on full time (35 Hour per week) Contracts, all full time staff left as they wanted to focus on Part Time Contracts instead.
if this is so why have both Wilko local stores got so many empty shelves (York and Selby) with no prospect of when they may be filled again?
Greedy company who doesn’t care about it’s customers or staff alike. Used to be a lovely family run business but not anymore. Businesses that run in the way they now do rarely make it. Never shop there anymore.
I agree, they just practically ridicule any complaints no matter how serious. If you dare complain via their facebook page, Wilko staff troll you, there not even clever enough to hide who they work for on their own profiles LOL
Or maybe they don’t give a shit…