Leamington and Kenilworth Wilko branches are not on list of stores to close imminently

The Leamington and Kenilworth branches of ailing high street retail hain Wilko or not on the list of stores the company will close imminently.

Wilko has today (Wednesday September 6) published the list of 52 stores it will close on either Tuesday (September 12) or Thursday (September 14) next week costing 1,016 jobs.

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.

The future of the chain has been up in the air since then, with rumours a majority of stores could be bought by the owner of HMV in a move that would save 8,000 jobs. However, the rescue deal is said to have hit a stumbling block.

Read more: ‘Pupils should be starting at new Leamington school – but instead they face a building site’, says MP

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.

Wilko CEO Mark Jackson has published an open letter online which can be read here https://shorturl.at/ajuwK