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Wilko is to close 52 branches on Tuesday and Thursday this week after the group went into administration earlier this year.
Bosses at trade union GMB has said it is “likely” all 12,500 jobs at the chain will be lost with all 400 branches set to close by early October.
The cash-stripped retailer has struggled with competition from discount shops and the move away from town high street shops to out-of-town retail parks.
HMV boss Doug Putman was poised to take on 300 of the shops but the rescue deal has now fallen through.
Staff will hear from administrators at PwC over the next few days about what will happen next.
These Wilko shops will close on Tuesday, September 12:
- Acton, London
- Aldershot, Hampshire
- Barking, London
- Bishop Auckland, County Durham
- Bletchley, Milton Keynes
- Brownhills, Walsall
- Camberley, Surrey
- Cardiff Bay Retail Park
- Falmouth, Cornwall
- Harpurhey, Manchester
- Irvine, North Ayrshire
- Liverpool Edge Lane
- Llandudno, Wales
- Lowestoft, Suffolk
- Morley, Leeds
- Nelson, Lancashire
- Port Talbot, Wales
- Putney, London
- Stafford, Staffordshire
- Tunbridge Wells, Kent
- Wakefield, 121 Kirkgate
- Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
- Westwood Cross Retail Park, Broadstairs, Kent
- Winsford, Cheshire.
These Wilko stores will close on Thursday, September 14:
- Ashford, Kent
- Avonmeads, Bristol
- Banbury, Oxfordshire
- Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria
- Basildon, Essex
- Belle Vale, Liverpool
- Burnley, Lancashire
- Clydebank, Glasgow
- Cortonwood, Barnsley
- Dagenham, Essex
- Dewsbury, West Yorkshire
- Eccles, Greater Manchester
- Folkestone, Kent
- Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
- Hammersmith, London
- Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
- Morriston, Swansea
- New Malden, South-west London
- North Shields, Tyne and Wear
- Queen Street, Cardiff
- Rhyl, Wales
- Southampton West Quay
- St Austell, Cornwall
- Stockport, Greater Manchester
- Truro, Cornwall
- Uttoxeter, Staffordshire
- Walsall
- Woking, Surrey.
The HMV rescue deal fell through after the rising costs involved made the agreement untenable.
Doug Putman, founder of Putman Investments, said: “It is with great disappointment that we can no longer continue in the purchase process for Wilko having worked with administrators and suppliers over several weeks to seek a viable way to rescue it as a going concern.
“We had financing in place and received the full support of PWC, Wilko management and staff representatives, which we are deeply thankful for considering what a challenging time it has been for them.
“However, commitment to overhauling the trading framework of the business with partners and the costs of running Wilko’s legacy operations infrastructure combined has meant that a stable foundation could not be secured to ensure long term success for the business and its people in the way that we would have wanted.”
The administrators previously confirmed there would be 299 redundancies at the chain’s distribution centre in Worksop and Newport, as well as 260 redundancies at its support centre.
Retailer B&M is paying £13million to take on 51 of Wilko’s 400 outlets but B&M has not confirmed if any jobs will be saved as a result.
The group announced it was going into administration in August with 12,500 jobs put at risk at it shops, warehouses and head office.
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