Wilko’s family must close pension gap

Wilko’s founding family were this weekend branded “the unacceptable face of capitalism” after saying they had no plans to plug the bankrupt retailer’s £70m pension hole.

The discount chain went bust a year ago, with the loss of more than 12,000 jobs and the closure of 400 stores. The Mail on Sunday revealed that Wilko’s owners – descendants of founder James Kemsey Wilkinson – had received £77m in dividends over the previous decade.

Wilko had debts of £625m when it went bust. The collapse left the pension fund with a huge deficit, meaning more than 1,000 employees who have not yet retired face the prospect of a lower annual income for the rest of their lives.

But Wilko’s parent company, Amalgamated Holdings Wilkinson Limited (AHWL), said last week it does not believe it has any obligation to plug the pension gap.

AHWL – whose directors include Lisa Wilkinson, granddaughter of the company’s founder – added that it has “never been the sponsoring employer” or given a guarantee for the programme.

The comments were criticised by Lord Mann, a former Labour MP and chairman of the Treasury Select Committee whose Bassetlaw constituency included Wilko’s Worksop headquarters. He described the owners as “the new unacceptable face of capitalism”.

He said: “Their place in history as a successful family business has been destroyed in a frenzy of greed. It is absolutely appalling, the law is clearly too weak,” Mann added.

Wilko’s pension scheme could be saved by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), the industry lifeboat that is assessing the scheme. Experts said there were also precedents for owners making good pension fund holes.

Dr Gordon Fletcher of Salford University Business School noted that businessman Sir Philip Green paid £363m into the pension fund of 11,000 BHS workers, two years after the collapse in 2016. There are growing calls for the Wilkinson family to follow suit.

“It is an absolute disgrace that the Wilko family owners feel they cannot fulfil their responsibilities to loyal employees,” said Nadine Houghton, national director of the GMB union.

There was no one at home last week at the £3million, three-storey house where Lisa Wilkinson and her husband live, on one of Cambridge’s most exclusive streets.

Cobwebs had gathered around the front doors of the building.

A neighbor said he hadn’t seen Lisa Wilkinson in weeks.

Last year, she tearfully told MPs she was devastated by the discounter’s collapse, but claimed the family’s multi-million dollar fortune was not enough to fix the pension fund. The parent company did not have enough assets, which were mainly tied up in start-ups and British properties, Wilkinson said.

Only £20m of the pension fund’s £70m deficit is covered by Wilko’s assets, meaning pensioners will lose most of their entitlement unless the Wilkinson family pays up or the PPF makes up the shortfall.

The PPF promises to pay out the full pensions already received, but only about 90 percent of the payments to members who were not yet retired when their employer went bust.

A PPF spokesperson said: ‘We are working closely with The Pensions Regulator and the scheme’s trustees to ensure the best possible outcome for our members.

“We want to reassure our members, at what will undoubtedly be a worrying time for them, that we are here to protect them for as long as they need us.”