Wilko’s administrators PwC are set to grill majority shareholder Lisa Wilkinson on the distribution of £77m in dividends to investors during the decade leading up to the discount retailer’s demise.
This inquiry comes amid growing demands for the Wilkinson family to address a £56m deficit in the pension funds of the company’s employees.
The Times reports that PwC will hold a review into the dividends paid out to the Wilkinson family and the retailer’s other directors as part of a broad investigation into company transactions in the years building up to its administration last month.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
According to the title, the administrators have already kicked off the process of gathering information from the company’s directors, including Wilkinson.
They plan to conduct interviews and scrutinize bank statements to investigate the factors contributing to the collapse and determine whether any legal actions should be pursued.
Wilkinson is the granddaughter of the company’s founder James Kempsey Wilkinson.
She took over the reigns as the boss of the retail chain back in 2014 when she bought her majority stake in Wilko from her cousin Karin Swann.
The family have faced backlash for paying £77m to themselves and former shareholders in the ten years before the retailer fell into administration.
This includes a £3m dividend last year, which was paid despite Wilko reporting losses of £39m, while £3.2m was also paid out in 2018 when the discounter recorded a £65m loss.
Wilkinson had previously justified the payouts made during the period of financial losses, citing the company’s £100m in assets and a robust bank balance of £58m.
The deficit in the scheme, which holds 2,000 members, is £76m on a buyout basis.
It is set to recover £20m from security it took over a distribution centre and other freehold properties.
Pension experts have said its likely that the scheme will now enter an assessment process for the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), and during that period, the trustees will continue to pay pensioners.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
