Peterborough branches of Wilkos to remain open - for now

The two branches of Wilkos in Peterborough will remain open – for now.

A total of 52 Wilko stores will close across the country next week, affecting 1,016 jobs, following the announcement that the firm has gone into administration.

The list of next week’s closures was announced yesterday, and neither of the two Peterborough branches – one at the Orton Gate Shopping Centre and one in the city centre in Broadway – were on the list.

Signs have been placed in store windows asking customers not to ask staff about the future of the shops.

24 stores will close for good on Tuesday, September 12, with a further 28 to close two days later.

Other redundancies elsewhere in the company have also been confirmed by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). There will be another 299 jobs lost at two Wilko warehouses, plus a further 17 redundancies at its support centre.

This comes on top of 269 job losses already announced at the Wilko support centre, plus 14 other redundancies at a subsidiary firm, which were confirmed by PwC last week. Wilko collapsed into administration last month, putting more than 400 stores and 12,500 jobs at risk.

It was announced this week that B&M is to buy up to 51 stores in a deal worth £13million. However, B&M has not confirmed which Wilko shops it has bought, or if it will save any jobs. The stores are expected to be rebranded as B&M.