Peterborough's two Wilko stores are set to close over the next four days

Staff at Peterborough’s two Wilko stores are preparing for closure after years of trading.

The discount retailer, which collapsed into administration last month, has stores in the Hereward Cross Shopping Centre and at the Ortongate Shopping Centre, in Orton Goldhay.

Now administrators PwC have confirmed that both will close with a few days of each other.

The first to shut is the Wilko store in the Ortongate Shopping Centre which will cease trading today (September 21).

The second store, in the Hereward Cross Shopping Centre, will shut on Monday (September 24).

It is not known how many jobs will be lost as result of the closures.

It is expected that the Ortongate store, which was the centre flagship retailer, will be taken on by discount retailer Poundland.

Poundland recently announced that it was taking on the leases of 70 Wilko stores nationally and intends to retain the staff but change the branding to its own.

Poundland managing director Barry Williams said: “In the coming weeks we will work quickly with landlords so we can open these stores as Poundlands.”

Wilko had been about to agree a new five year lease on the Ortongate unit. It was a deal that delighted the new owners of the 15-year-old centre, Nottingham-based ALB Group, which had bought the shopping mall in May.

The centre has not commented on the future of the Wilko unit.

The collapse of the 93-year-old Wilko means all its 400 stores will close by early October and about 12,500 staff are expected to lose their jobs.

Councillor Julie Stevenson, one of the ward’s representatives on Peterborough City Council, said: “This has been a very distressing time for the staff of Ortongate’s branch of Wilko, the majority of whom are residents of our ward.

"Wilko has been in Ortongate for many years and it will be sorely missed by everyone here.

Cllr Stevenson added: “I hope very much that employees are able to find appropriate alternative employment, either at the shop if another company takes over or at somewhere nearby.”