Poundland owner to buy up to 71 Wilko stores - including Sale’s

Poundland owner Pepco is set to take on the leases of up to 71 Wilko stores, including Sale’s Stanley Square store, administrators for the collapsed retailer announced today (12 September).

But the stores will be rebranded under the Poundland name – which means they'll no longer be called Wilko. It comes after Wilko collapsed last month, putting more than 400 stores and around 12,500 workers at risk. Poundland has confirmed that existing Wilko staff will be given "priority" for jobs at the new sites once the sale has been completed.

Poundland hopes to complete the rebrand of the Wilko stores by the end of the year. Poundland managing director Barry Williams said he recognised the last few weeks had been difficult for Wilko workers and said the company will work quickly to reopen stores.

Andy Bond, executive chairman of Pepco Group, said: “The agreement to assign a number of Wilko store leases to Pepco Group will help to bring Poundland’s value and wide offer to even more customers in the UK. It will be pleasing to offer employment to a number of Wilko’s colleagues - who will benefit from being part of a successful and fast-growing pan-European variety discount group."

Administrators at PwC said they will continue to "engage" with retailers around future purchases of other Wilko sites. PwC says it is confident they will "complete" a sale of the Wilko brand and intellectual property within the coming days. 

There had been hopes that a rescue deal involving HMV owner Doug Putman to buy the majority of the Wilko estate could save hundreds of stores - but this deal fell through this week. Since a majority buyer has not been found, a large number of Wilko stores are expected to close by early October.

Stanley Square was previously home to a Poundland store before its closure ahead of works regenerating the area. So this news does not mean that the Sale store will definitely be rebranded as Poundland – keep your eyes peeled for future updates.