品牌歷史
Wilko Retail (formerly Wilkinson Hardware Stores) is a British high- street chain which sells homewares and household goods.
Wilkinson,又名Wilko ，是英國有名的high-street連鎖超市，主要銷售家居用品，分布在英國每個小鎮的商業街上，日用品特別便宜，如洗衣液、衛生用品、鍋碗瓢盆、床上用品等。
Founded in 1930 as Wilkinson Cash Stores by James Kemsey Wilkinson, the company has remained largely in the hands of the founding family. When Tony Wilkinson, the son of the founder, retired as chairman after 45 years in June 2005, he was replaced by his niece, Karin Swann, and his daughter, Lisa Wilkinson.
Product range 產品范圍
The Wilko product range concentrates on household essentials, including homewares, textiles, DIY, cleaning products, healthand beauty lines, stationery, confectionery, pet products and kitchen and bathroom goods. A large proportion of the range is made up of own- label products sold under the Wilko brand, although like other retailers Wilko has started to use privatelabel brands.
Wilko品牌發展歷程
The first Wilkinson store was opened in Leicester in 1930, increasing to a total of nine branches by 1940; the Beaconsfieldstore can be seen in the background in the 1945 film Brief Encounter. By the end of the 1980s Wilkinson had a total of 78 stores, increasing to over 150 by the time of the founder's death in 1997.
Wilkinson opened their first Scottish outlet in Castle Douglas on 23 January 2009, in a store formerly occupied by The Cooperative Group. Stores were subsequently opened in Scotland that same year in Motherwell on 17 July, in Irvine in Novemberand in Clydebank on 2 December. During 2010, the latest stores planned for Scotland set to open are Hamilton, Kilmarnock,Greenock and Livingston.
Wilkinson has a trend of taking over redundant former stores rather than building new ones, particularly in the West Midlands; notable examples include the former Kwik Save store in Great Bridge (May 2008), the former Safeway store in Halesowen (November 2006) and the former Marks & Spencer store in Dudley (July 1991). The opening of a store in Dudley was an example of a trend of the retailer to take over large units in town centres left vacant by the relocation of big retail names to out of town locations, as Marks & Spencer had closed its Dudley store during 1990 in favour of a new store at the nearby Merry Hill Shopping Centre.
The Dudley store was so successful, that a ￡250,000 expansion to the upper level of the building (initially only the groundfloor was used) was completed three years after its opening. By this stage, Wilkinson was one of Britain's fastest growing retailers.
In 2012, Wilkinson began rebranding its stores as Wilko, its long term nickname, and by 2014, most stores were rebranded.