High street chain Wilko, which last week announced it was on the brink of going out of business, has posted a heartfelt message to customers.
The retailer has a large branch on Deansgate in Bolton town centre, which is one of hundreds around the country which is now under threat.
The news prompted an outpouring of dismay from shoppers fearing that they are about to lose their local branches, which the company has now acknowledged on social media.
A post on Wilko’s Facebook page said: “Thanks for all the love!
“We're humbled by the amount of love you've sent our way after the news this week.
“Right now, we're still here and we're doing everything in our power to stay that way.
“Please pop down to your local store today... we'd love see you!”
Bolton has two branches which could be threatened by closure, one in the town centre and another on Middlebrook Retail Park.
They are amongst more than 400 across the country that are now threatened, with around 12,000 jobs now that risk.
Last week, Wilko CEO Mark Jackson announced that the company was preparing to call in administrators in the face of “mounting cash pressures.”
He said: “While we can confirm we’ve had a significant level of interest, including indicative offers that we believe would meet all our financial criteria to recapitalise the business, at present, we don’t today have an offer that provides the necessary liquidity in the time we have available, given the mounting cash pressures we’re faced with.
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“Unfortunately, with this in mind, today we’re having to take the difficult decision to file an NOI.
We’ll continue to progress discussions with interested parties with the aim of completing a transaction which preserves the business and will encourage those interested parties we’re in discussions with to move as fast as possible.
“We continue to believe that our robust turnaround plan, with significant re-stabilisation cost savings in progress, will deliver a profitable wilko and maximise the significant opportunities that we know exist.”
He added: “That said, while we’ll continue to progress these indicative offers, without the surety of a recapitalisation being able to be completed within the necessary time frame and given the cash position, we’ve been left with no choice but to take this action.”
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