Wilko’s founding family has come under fire after claiming it had no plans to help plug the retailer’s £70 million pension deficit.
The chain, which collapsed a year ago, closed 400 of its stores and over 12,000 jobs were lost. This left its pension fund with a huge deficit, meaning thousands of people face the prospect of reduced annual incomes for life.
The Mail on Sunday revealed that Wilko’s owners, descendants of its Founder, James Kemsey Wilkson, has extracted £77 million in dividends over the previous decade. The retailer had debts of £625 million when it went under.
Wilko’s ultimate parent, Amalgamated Holdings Wilkinson Limited (AHWL), last week said it did not believe it had any obligation to fill the pensions hole.
AHWL – whose directors include Lisa Wilkinson, grand-daughter of the company’s Founder – added it had ‘never been the sponsoring employer’ or provided the scheme with a guarantee.
The comments were slammed by Lord Mann, a former Labour MP and Treasury Select Committee Chairman whose Bassetlaw constituency included Wilko’s Worksop headquarters. He described the Owners as ‘the new unacceptable face of capitalism’.
Mr Mann added: “Their place in history as a successful family firm has been destroyed in a frenzy of greed. It is quite appalling, the law is clearly too weak.”
