![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wilko-paid-out-77million-to-owners-of-the-stricken-retail-chain/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/maureen-mclean-alamy-live-news-837353452-3.jpg&description=DISCOUNT LOSS Published : 22:52, 12 Aug 2023 Updated : 22:52, 12 Aug 2023 COLLAPSED discount chain Wilko reportedly paid £77million to owners and former shareholders before going bust and putting 12,000 jobs at risk. The stricken firm which went into administration last week is said to have been handing out multi-million-pound dividends to key figures. 1 A Wilko store in Maidenhead in Berkshire is now among hundred at risk of shutting Credit: Alamy The biggest pay-out over the past decade was a £63million windfall in 2015 when one side of the family which had founded the company sold their shares to the other, the Mail On Sunday says. Wilko stores, a familar sight on high streets across Britain , were controlled by descendants of founder James Kemley Wilkinson. New analysis of the 93-year-old business's accounts outlines how people were paid in the years ahead of it going into administration . Share dividends of £3million were handed out last year despite Wilko's annual losses of £39million, reports suggest. This is said to have followed pay-outs of £3.2million in 2018 at a time the firm slumped to a £65million loss. Trade unions tonight branded the dividend pay-outs "a disgrace". The GMB's Nadine Houghton said: "The business could have thrived under strong market conditions for bargain retailers - but with owners prioritising their own dividends, it has been left to go under." Wilko's 400 nationwide stores continue to trade for now, amid talks with potential buyers, but administrators PwC have been called in. But it has now stopped processing all online deliveries and shoppers are limited to click and collect orders instead. A spokesperson for AHWL, the management firm for remaining family owners after the split, said none had personally received any dividends since AHWL were formed 2017. They owned 99.7 per cent of Wilko until it went into administration. He told the Mail On Sunday: "The dividends received have been invested in property and businesses in the UK.){kind=link}
COLLAPSED discount chain Wilko reportedly paid £77million to owners and former shareholders before going bust and putting 12,000 jobs at risk.
The stricken firm which went into administration last week is said to have been handing out multi-million-pound dividends to key figures.
The biggest pay-out over the past decade was a £63million windfall in 2015 when one side of the family which had founded the company sold their shares to the other, the Mail On Sunday says.
Wilko stores, a familar sight on high streets across Britain, were controlled by descendants of founder James Kemley Wilkinson.
New analysis of the 93-year-old business’s accounts outlines how people were paid in the years ahead of it going into administration.