Wilko owner Chris Dawson has revealed plans to open up to 40 new UK stores next year as he looks to restore the discount chain to its former glory.
The Range owner, who bought the Wilko brand out of administration in October, told Retail Gazette he is targeting “shopping centres and only very busy high streets” for the new stores.
“I would say 30 to 40 in the first year,” Dawson said. “Then it’ll be the same, if not more, the following years till we fill the place up.”
He said the retailer had several stores “up and down the country” lined up to open before Easter.
Dawson also believes that Wilko, which had 400 stores when it collapsed, could grow to up to 300 shops.
“There is not a place for 400 anymore because the world’s changed since then, but I think full saturation would be 300 in the UK,” he said.
Wilko opened the third out of the five stores it has planned before the new year in Luton on Friday, following openings in Exeter and Plymouth last weekend.
The three stores that have opened so far have recruited more than a third of its original store staff.
Self-made billionaire Dawson said the first two shops had performed ahead of expectations: “Exeter was the best and Plymouth was a smidgen over the figures. It’s gaining ground by the day.”
“It’s a return to the high street and a return to an extremely famous and much-loved brand.”
The retail entrepreneur wants to expand Wilko into towns it hasn’t reached under its previous ownership, and is eyeing European expansion.
“It’s early days yet, this is only store number three, but there’s going to be many, many, many more in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, and who knows, it could even be in Europe.”
Buying Wilko
Dawson swooped in to snap up the Wilko brand, website and intellectual property for £5m back in September, successfully beating competition from HMV owner Doug Putman and online marketplace OnBuy.
“I’ve never seen a brand worshipped so much in my life,” he said.
“There were a couple of things that happened towards the end but [Wilko] was bloody good for a lot of years and I thought, ‘we can make it good again and we can make good profit’.”
Dawson said he was also attracted by the retailer’s website.
“The conversion rate is better than most I have ever seen and the way it’s run is better,” he said.
As such, Dawson’s rescue deal also included 36 employees from Wilko’s digital team.
Dawson now has two big discount giants in his portfolio: Wilko and The Range.
“One is high street value for money, and one is an out-of-town value for money,” he said. “You can put them side by side and they would still trade.
Dawson, who decided to snap up the retailer’s intellectual property assets instead of taking on its stores, is also aware of the speculation that reopening Wilko stores were part of his original plan.
“Everybody said ‘he had that planned all the way through’ and yeah, I sort of did have it planned all the way through,” said Dawson.
“I didn’t want 400 stores because, without being rude to anybody, they were good 20 to 30 years ago, but they were in the wrong place. The wrong place, the wrong rent, the wrong rates – everything.”
According to Dawson, only 80 to 100 of Wilko’s original stores were well located.
Restoring the Wilko brand
Many Wilko stores were left with empty shelves in the lead up to the retailer’s collapse, however, Dawson is keen to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself.
“We’re looking to make sure we’re 97% in stock all the time and that [will drive] a big increase on like-for-like sales,” he said.
“We’re [also] looking to increase the quality in three areas,” said Dawson, citing pets, healthy and beauty, and homewares.
The new Wilko stores include more branded products than before, a larger space dedicated to seasonal products, the return of its toys range, and a bulked out in-store home and DIY section, which includes Dulux paint mixing station for the first time.
Dawson has also brought back the retailer’s food-to-go range, which its previous owners pulled over concerns it wasn’t able to compete with the top supermarkets.
Another part of Dawson’s plan for restoring and strengthening Wilko is bolstering it online business, which relaunched in October.
“Not everybody wants to come into a high street anymore. You can sit at home and buy anything you want.”
He expects the retailer’s site to “double in size within the next three months,” as the team continues to add more ranges online.
Dawson said the website was performing “way ahead of expectations” since its relaunch and expects the site to become the “jewel of the [Wilko] crown in the next six months”.
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