Wilko's departure from Sussex imminent: These are the stores closing this weekend and those temporarily spared

Eastbourne’s Sovereign Harbour Wilko store, as well as the branches in Crawley and Bognor Regis, will close this Sunday (September 17), with the last day for employees being Tuesday, September 19.

The other Sussex stores – in Worthing; The Beacon, Eastbourne; Burgess Hill and Horsham – will remain open for the time being. However, closing down sales are beginning to be put in place.

Administrators PwC said they had ‘explored all opportunities to save the business’ but ‘despite extensive efforts’, no significant part of Wilko’s operations can be rescued.

In a statement, the administrators confirmed that all Wilko stores and its two distribution centres will close.

It is anticipated that all stores will close by early October, resulting in redundancies of 9,100 employees.

Edward Williams, joint administrator, said earlier this month: “In the absence of viable offers for the whole business, very sadly store closures and redundancies of team members from those stores are now necessary. The loss of these stores will be felt not only by the team members who served them with such dedication, including through the uncertainty of recent weeks, but also the communities which they have been a part of.

“We are enormously grateful for the support of team members during this difficult period and remain committed to doing all we can to help affected staff, assisting them with processing redundancy claims and working with relevant parties to help secure new employment as quickly as possible.”

Staff at 124 stores were informed on Monday that all outlets will close on, or before, Thursday, September 21.

Timings for the closure of the remaining 222 stores will be announced ‘in due course’, the administrator said.

The full list of stores closing on Sunday is: Accrington; Ashington; Blackwood; Bognor; Bradford; Bury St Edmunds; Coalville; Crawley; Droylsden; Ellesmere Port; Falkirk; Ferndown; Hanley; Humberstone; Huyton; Kensington High Street; Kings Heath; Lakeside; Leigh; Letchworth; Maidenhead; Market Harborough; Melton Mowbray; Newport; Orpington; Pontefract; Pontypool; Redruth; Rugeley; Shirley; Southport; Sovereign Harbour; Torquay; Wimbledon; Wombwell; Woodhouse Lane - Leeds; Worcester and Workington.