Nearly 4,000 jobs facing axe at Wilko due to '˜changing retail landscape'

The company announced it has entered a redundancy consultation with 3,900 staff today (Friday, August 11) after reporting an 80 per cent plunge in pre-tax profits.

It is understood that 1,000 new “senior supervisor” roles will also be created as part of the shake-up.

Wilko’s retail director, Anthony Houghton, said: “Despite the challenging retail landscape Wilko has seen both positive customer numbers and like-for-like sales growth this year.

“This is not translating into positive results despite all the hard work to reduce costs, grow own-brand and digital sales.

“Following independent studies we identified a legacy of retail structures that created complexity to manage which aren’t simple, fair or transparent for our team members.

“The simpler newly defined store structure will give teams greater variety within their roles and result in more team hours on the shop floor, delivering a better customer experience.”