Scottish retail chain Wilkies acquired in pre-pack deal

The business and certain assets of Scottish retail chain Wilkies have been acquired out of administration in a pre-pack deal. The business has been acquired by a new company, Wilkies Trading Limited, after falling into administration on June 29.

The Edinburgh headquartered business is a retailer of women's and men's clothing and homeware. The company dates back to 1898 and, prior to entering administration, it employed 95 staff at 11 stores in towns throughout Scotland.

However, the company, like many retailers, experienced trading difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following COVID-19, the company’s administrators said that trading did not recover to previous levels in some locations.

Coupled with rising costs for labour and energy, this led to the business incurring significant losses. Despite directors exploring several options, including a sale, a solvent resolution could not be found and the company appointed Alistair McAlinden and Blair Nimmo of Interpath Advisory as joint administrators.

Upon their appointment, the administrators immediately sold six of the firm’s stores to Wilkies Trading Limited. The six stores, which employ 55 staff, are in Largs, Peebles, Perth, Castle Douglas, Ballater and Helensburgh.

Five remaining stores were not included in the deal and four of those will close with immediate effect: Edinburgh, Falkirk, Hamilton and North Berwick. The final store, in Kirkcaldy, will continue to trade for a short period to sell stock that was not included in the sale.

Joint administrator Blair Nimmo said: “The high street continues to come under significant pressure, with another retail casualty caused by a combination of customers moving to supermarket and online retail, and cost pressures particularly from labour and energy prices biting.”


Read about the latest regulations on pre-pack administrations.

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