Wilko paid out £77m to its owners and former shareholders in the decade before its collapse.
Even last year, when Wilko losses spiralled to £35.9m, a £3m dividend was paid out.
Meanwhile, £3.2m was taken out in 2018 when the discount chain slid to a £65m loss, according to This is Money.
The biggest payout of £63m was made in 2015, when one side of the Wilkinson family sold their shares to the other.
Karin Swann, a granddaughter of founder James Kemsey Wilkinson, quit the board leaving her cousin Lisa Wilkinson as chair.
The GMB union took aim at Wilko’s owners after the retailer collapsed this week, appointing PwC as administrator.
National officer Nadine Houghton said: “Much needed cash was taken out of the business by the Wilkinson family even when it was struggling. GMB members have remained loyal and committed to Wilko, accepting pay cuts and cuts to terms and conditions to help the business stay afloat, yet, as late as last year £3m was taken from the business.
“All the while the technology to improve the Wilko home shopping offer was neglected, their place in the market lost and now 12,000 jobs are on the line.”
A spokesperson for AHWL, the management company for the Wilkinson family, told the newspaper that family members personally had not received any dividends since 2017 when AHWL was formed.
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AHWL owned 99.7% of the retailer when it collapsed.
“The dividends received have been invested in property and businesses in the UK, including over 20 high risk investments into young businesses as the family seek to help entrepreneurs have the success from business that they had over 90 years,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wilko’s pension scheme has been left with a multi-million blackhole.
The retailer’s final-salary pension scheme, which closed a decade ago and has almost 1,900 members, has a £16m shortfall.
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) looks set to step in. The PPF promises to pay pensions already being drawn in full, but only around 90% to members who had not retired when their employer collapsed.
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