Wilko’s former owners do not plan to help plug the collapsed retailer’s £70million pension hole – in another blow to thousands of former workers.
The discount chain went bust a year ago with the loss of 12,500 jobs and closure of 398 stores.
Amalgamated Holdings Wilkinson Limited (AHWL), the group that is owned by Wilko’s founding Wilkinson family, says their lawyers believe they do not have any obligation to help fund the hole.
Collapse: Discount chain Wilko went bust a year ago with the loss of 12,500 jobs and closure of 398 stores
The directors ‘do not believe there is a liability in respect to any deficit’, according to documents filed by AHWL.
The shortfall comes after £77million was paid to the owners in the decade before the collapse.
Unions and MPs last year called for the owners to be held accountable.
Explaining why it did not believe it should be responsible, AHWL said it had ‘never been the sponsoring employer’ for Wilko pensions.
Former Wilko staff are hoping watchdog The Pensions Regulator will take action against Wilko and use its powers to pursue the company’s owners to help.
Atul Shah, a professor of accounting at City, University of London, who gave evidence to MPs on Wilko’s demise last year, said: ‘Everyone else looked after themselves.
But it is the workers who are left behind.’
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