Sean Farrington

speaker

894 appearances 10 recordings 6 series first heard Dec 2024 last heard 7 Jul

Sean Farrington’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 9 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 7.

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Sliced Bread · Toast - Series 7: Wilko · 4 Jun 2026 podcast

So their stores were actually allowed to stay open.

So Wilco had proudly chosen not to furlough their staff.

They emerged from the pandemic with an operating loss of over £37 million.

They raised money by selling their distribution centre, then leasing it back and secured a £40 million loan.

They announced the closure of 15 stores, brought in a new chief executive officer to turn things around.

But...

it all proved too late.

So in August 2023, Wilco went into administration and when a buyer couldn't be found, all its 400 or so stores were closed with the loss of over 12,000 jobs.

Janet Cochran started working at the Ashton Underline store in Greater Manchester when it first opened, was still there when it closed 31 years later.

Gordon, you left your role as Wilco's managing director 15 years earlier, but having worked with staff like Janet, you must have been aware of the effect of the closure on them.

You always know when a scale of collapse is big and having a ripple effect across the country, when the Business and Trade Committee of FMPs

start to investigate this stuff and have a look at what went on.

And a few months later, they did just that.

They called witnesses to try and explain what caused Wilco's collapse.

Here's some of what Nadine Horton from the GMB union told them.

So Lisa Wilkinson faced criticism partly because of millions of pounds in dividends that had been paid to shareholders during her directorship.

Now, her spokesperson told us dividends were only ever paid when performance allowed and not at the expense of investment into the company.

From 2014, they said, Wilco invested more than £273 million into the company's operations, people and supply chain.

financed from the company's performance and profits, not through debt.

And appearing before the select committee, Lisa Wilkinson said Wilco had run out of cash and there were a lot of contributory factors.

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