WILKO shoppers in Oswestry will be breathing a sigh of relief after the town centre store was granted a temporary reprieve from closure this morning (Wednesday, September 6).

Administrators for the retail giant revealed the fate of 52 of their stores nationwide which will be closing on Tuesday and Thursday, September 12 and 14.

The Oswestry store was among the hundreds of branches across the country which were on the brink of closure as the struggling national chain was unable to find a buyer.

However, the store may still close after administrators added on Wednesday that “it is possible that further store closures may regrettably be necessary” depending on talks with remaining suitors.

Edward Williams, joint administrator, said: “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.”

OTHER NEWS:

Next week's impending raft of closures is expected to result in a staggering 1,016 redundancies, further exacerbating the employment crisis.

Additionally, the company had already announced hundreds of job losses impacting warehouse and service centre staff.

Just yesterday (Tuesday), B&M, a competing retailer, finalised a transaction to acquire as many as 51 additional Wilko stores in a deal valued at a substantial £13 million.

Details on which stores are included in this deal will not be revealed until November.

In a statement, B&M assured that the consideration for their acquisition of Wilko stores is fully funded from existing cash reserves, and the deal is not anticipated to be contingent upon any regulatory clearances.

A spokesperson for B&M said: “The consideration is fully funded from existing cash reserves and the acquisition is not expected to be conditional on any regulatory clearances.

“An update on the timing of these new store openings will be provided in the H1 interim results announcement on November 9.”

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Here's the full list of Wilko stores that will close in England and Wales next week.

Any stores not included in this list are open and trading until further notice.

The following stores will close on Tuesday September 12: Acton, Aldershot, Barking, Bishop Auckland, Bletchley FF, Brownhills, Camberley, Cardiff Bay Retail Park, Falmouth, Harpurhey, Irvine, Liverpool Edge Lane, Llandudno, Lowestoft, Morley, Nelson, Port Talbot, Putney, Stafford, Tunbridge Wells, Wakefield, Weston-super-Mare, Westwood Cross, Winsford.

The following stores will close on Thursday September 14: Ashford, Avonmeads, Banbury, Barrow in Furness, Basildon, Belle Vale, Burnley (Relocation), Clydebank, Cortonwood, Dagenham, Dewsbury, Eccles, Folkestone, Great Yarmouth, Hammersmith, Huddersfield, Morriston, New Malden, North Shields, Queen Street Cardiff, Rhyl, Southampton-West Quay, St Austell, Stockport, Truro, Uttoxeter, Walsall, Woking.