The Range has snapped up Wilko’s brand, website and intellectual property, administrators at PwC confirmed on Thursday.
The discount retailer is understood to have paid £5m for the family-owned chain’s assets, Sky News reported.
The deal will see Wilko’s online operations recommence after the administration store trading programme concludes in early October.
The transaction will also see 36 employees from Wilko’s digital team transferred over to The Range.
PwC joint administrator Jane Steer said: “Since our appointment, the feedback from customers and wider stakeholders during this challenging period has reinforced the fact that wilko remains a much loved and trusted brand within the UK.
“This sale to The Range will ensure that the wilko name lives on under their ownership and we wish The Range every success.”
The Range, set up by Devon-based entrepreneur Chris Dawson, had faced competition from online marketplace OnBuy to snap up Wilko’s brand assets.
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Dawson has grown The Range to more than 200 stores and is in expansion mode.
It is currently developing what it claims is the largest distribution centre built in the UK in the past five years, which will help fuel its ambitious growth strategy.
The deal comes as Wilko’s 400 stores are set to close after HMV owner Doug Putman’s offer to take on the bulk of its shops fell through.
B&M has inked a deal to buy 52 stores, while Poundland yesterday snapped up 71 shops.
Poundland will convert the stores to its brand name, adding that Wilko staff would have priority when applying for roles at the shops.
However, thousands of jobs will be lost as a result of its collapses.
A further 9,100 workers were told earlier this week that their jobs would be lost when the stores close by early October.
Some 124 stores will close before next Thursday (21 September) while the collapsed retailer’s distribution centre will cease trading on Friday (15 September).
Further redundancies of the remaining 210 support centre employees will take place later this month and early October as operations wind down.
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The Wilkinson family should be Investigated for taking 70 million and then borrowing Forty million when the knew they were in serious trouble
But they’ll say “it’s just business”.
Absolutely, couldn’t agree with you more
Well that’s strange.becose the range was a part of Woolworth when it went bust .
It wasn’t
No it wasn’t.
The Range is and has always been a privately owned family business.
Nothing to do with any other brand.
They did however buy all the MFI stock when that retailer went into administration.
Another company lost because people would rather use a massive American company to deliver goods to their door without them having to make an effort other than pressing a few buttons on a computer. What next? Tesco going bust because people can’t be bothered to get off their backsides and make the effort to push a trolley around a shop?
I’m not sure that the general populous can be (wholly) blamed for the utter shambles that the Wilkinson family turned Wilko into, that and bleeding it dry along the way. Sure it plays a part, but this one, there was an awful lot of dodgy on the inside too and the high street ultimately will be lesser for it.