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Chapter 1: What led to the rise of Wilko as a successful family business?
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Hello and welcome to a new series of Toast, the show from BBC Radio 4 that celebrates amazing businesses, amazing brands that once offered a lot to customers but still ended up toast. I'm the BBC business journalist, Sean Farrington. Beside me is entrepreneur Sam White as ever. However, we keep Sam in the dark about what's coming up. Her conclusions at the end are based on what she's just heard.
This time we're examining a successful family business that expanded over decades to occupy a treasured place on over 400 high streets and retail parks. So why couldn't it survive to celebrate its centenary? Sam, hello. Welcome back to Toast. Good to see you. Good to see you too. Business busy. Always the way.
Chapter 2: How did the leadership of JK Wilkinson shape the company's early years?
Usual rollercoaster that is the life of an entrepreneur.
Now, the business we're checking out today is one of those variety retailers. Best known perhaps for its DIY, its pet care, gardening products. But you could find pretty much everything you might need for your home in a branch of Wilco's.
Ah, Wilco's.
You might have had a Wilkinson's on your local street. Do you ever wander around a Wilco's, you know, looking at which toilet cleaner should we go for? Toothpaste on offer?
I have frequented on occasion and probably bought some stuff that I didn't need.
Yes, it all started way back in 1930 when James Kemsie Wilkinson, who was known as JK, opened his first store in Leicester. And he was only 24 years old. By the end of that decade, he had six Wilkinson hardware shops and a small warehouse as well. And we are joined in the studio by Gordon Brown, who was Wilkinson's managing director in the 1990s, And actually remembers JK himself.
Gordon, welcome to the Toast Studio.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Wilko face during the 2010s?
Thank you. Great to be here. And JK, what can you tell us about that man who started it in 1930?
Quite a character, I think is a polite way of putting it. He had a real passion for the business. Quite clearly a superb retail brain, which he developed over the years. 50 years that he was in charge of the business. A master of the shop floor, really understood the shop floor, how products should be displayed, how it should be priced. But he was a bit short-tempered at times.
And managers and staff found that out. Any particular moments spring to mind? Very much so. When I started, I spent a few days going around the stores in the Midlands with JK. And I remember him picking up one particular thing. It was a teapot with a lid, a separate lid.
Chapter 4: How did competitor strategies impact Wilko's market position?
And I looked at it and he said, we shouldn't be selling this. And I said, why not? There's no hole in the lid. He said, if you put hot water on that and try and pour it, it'll splutter all over the place. It was taken out of sale immediately. But he had that eye for detail, which was so important in retail.
So when you joined the business in 1991, it was JK's son, Tony, who'd been chairman by that point for almost 20 years. Was he similar?
Quite different. He had a really good understanding of people. I think that was the key with Tony. He visited all the stores every year, talked to the staff in the shop floor, in the tea room, talked to the manager. And he could really gauge the people. Tony was a gentleman, a real gentleman. So what was the role of JK around that time then?
Chapter 5: What role did product quality changes play in Wilko's decline?
He was a president.
He retired.
Although he did attend all the board meetings. And he attended the board meetings for the probably first four or five years that I was on the board. But I think what Tony did was also continue that best value concept that JK had. And I remember him writing to me not long after I joined the company saying, I want a maximum gross value. And he gave me a value.
And what I don't want is profits to be more than typically around 5% return on sales. And if you get to 7%, then we're taking too much money off our customers. And so we had a bonus scheme that was targeted to that. And so we went for the 5% and we started drifting up. We dropped our prices so that we get more sales and we kept the 5% more sales, more profit. Everyone was happy.
That's a lot of integrity.
That's one of the things I think about Wilco at that time.
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Chapter 6: How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect Wilko's operations?
I think they're very high level of honesty and a high level of integrity. I mean, one of the things that we all said, and this was JK, was he wanted the suppliers paid on time. And that was absolutely critical because he wanted that relationship with the suppliers.
So Wilkinson had developed their own product ranges back in the 70s, and that was where that Wilco name first appeared on their own brand paint, then gardening products as well. So Gordon, around the time you became managing director, fast forward into 1992, Wilkinson was opening its 95th store at this point. What did the business sort of...
look like back then? What did it feel like back then? The team members were the key. They were fantastic even then. They were well trained, great attitude, particularly friendly towards customers and they worked really hard.
So Janet Cochran from Oldham started working for Wilkinson the year after you joined the business actually Gordon. She stayed there for 31 years. We can hear a little bit here about how she remembers it.
From the day I walked in, right to the very end, it was amazing.
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Chapter 7: What were the final decisions leading to Wilko's administration?
I worked every job in the shop, every, you know, subsection around the store. They trained me to be duty manager. It was fantastic. I was one of these people, my shift started at 10 o'clock. I was on work premises from half past eight, sat there having breakfast with everybody. It felt like family. We catered for everybody. Everybody wanted that bargain, that will call bargain.
And that's what we were good at doing. Everything was cheaper hours than anywhere else.
That feeling of family, you were nodding a little bit there, Gordon, listening to that.
Absolutely. It was a real family culture. I mean, even members of the same family in the store as well. And I think the key was that the people were able to move up through the company.
Chapter 8: What lessons can businesses learn from Wilko's story?
And a lot of the senior management had started as Saturday jobs and they trained and developed and even board members ended up in that situation as well.
When we talk about the reasons people were going to Wilco, what was the best-selling product during your time there?
In terms of volume, it was dog chews. That's not S-H-O-E, but C-H-E-W. Chews, little penny chews, penny a time. We sold them individually, and we sold about 10 million of those a year. The other thing we'd sell would be a roll of eight black bin bags. And we sold about 5 million of those a year and used to put those in a basket at the front of the shop.
And by 10 o'clock in the morning, they were almost all sold. You had to fill up another box, another box.
Why?
They were 39 pence. That's why. And eventually we actually got a roll of 10 for the same price for 39p. And they sold just as quickly. And that was in the mid to late 90s that was happening.
Now, regular listeners to Toast, those that subscribe on BBC Sounds, will know we've already spoken about what happened to both C&A's UK stores, Woolworth's UK stores as well. Gordon, what did the closures of those businesses mean for Wilkinson?
I think if you take C&A, first of all, C&A was a real boost to Wilco. It was just in the early 2000s. And we were able to acquire a batch of stores in the south and west from C&A. And that gave us a real impetus in that area. The other thing that helped us at that time was the move by the grocers. Because grocers were moving out of town to the edge of town.
They were shutting down those smaller stores. People at Asda, Sainsbury's, Tesco, they wanted the edge of town stores, big superstore type arrangement. And we picked up those stores. Woolworths were a different situation. And their demise came after my retirement.
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