By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
A union and administrators have confirmed 237 more job losses at retailer Wilko’s headquarters in Worksop.
The GMB Union has revealed 220 jobs will be slashed from the high street giant’s distribution centre in the town, part of its Nottinghamshire headquarters.
A further 17 digital operations cuts were announced at the Worksop support centre during Tuesday’s announcement, alongside 79 redundancies at Wilko’s second distribution centre near Newport, Wales.
Nationwide, more than 1,000 store job cuts have also been announced.
Affected staff members in all these departments will be invited to meetings on Wednesday, September 7, before being sent home, GMB confirmed on Tuesday.
This is on top of the 269 other staff who were cut from the support centre in Worksop on Monday amid an ongoing administration at the retailer.
A further 14 Worksop job cuts also came on Monday at Kin Limited, a subsidiary firm of Wilko based at the Bassetlaw hub.
It means 520 Nottinghamshire Wilko jobs have been cut this week from Wilko’s Bassetlaw sites – including 220 distribution and 286 support centre roles.
Speaking on the fresh redundancies, Cllr James Naish (Lab), leader of Bassetlaw District Council, said: “The news of further redundancies is another blow to everyone linked with Wilko and Bassetlaw.
“We continue to be in regular contact with the administrators, the unions and other stakeholders to ensure that we are ready to support Wilko employees affected by this latest development when and as required.
“This includes working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and their Rapid Response Service to assess the range of areas affected by redundancy in order to match the skill sets of those being made redundant with potential opportunities and employers within the local area.”
Cllr Jodie Potts (Lab), who represents the Worksop South East ward where the Worksop hubs are based, also yesterday described the redundancies as “really, really sad” for her community.
Tuesday’s announcement, made to the union by Wilko administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), came alongside confirmation of at least 1,016 further redundancies across 52 high street stores.
A total of 24 of the firm’s 400 stores will close on Tuesday, September 12, with another 28 closing on Thursday, September 14, GMB added.
Neither GMB nor PwC confirmed which branches are included in the deal, although this detail is expected to be announced on Wednesday.
However, the news followed confirmation rival retailer B&M had agreed to buy 51 physical Wilko stores in a £13m deal.
The high street chain did not reveal which stores are included in its deal but confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service this bid was lodged.
It is unclear whether the 52 stores axed on Tuesday include the 51 stores being purchased by B&M.
But in a statement, union GMB confirmed this deal relates only to the physical stores, with all staff members to be made redundant by administrators prior to store closures.
“We are making enquiries about the possibility of current staff being given preferential treatment in applying for any jobs that may appear, but at the time of writing, we cannot confirm these will apply,” it said.
“GMB is working round the clock to see if we can get the significant offer over the line and is doing everything we can to save as many … jobs as possible.”
Edward Williams, joint administrator at PwC, added: “In the absence of viable offers for the whole business, very sadly store closures and redundancies of team members from those stores are now necessary, in addition to the already announced redundancies at the support centre and distribution centres.
“We know this has been a deeply unsettling time for everyone concerned and would like to express our gratitude to all Wilko team members for the dedication and support they have continued to give the business in the most trying of circumstances.”
