Greed blamed for failure of Wilko rescue deal as MPs examine retailer’s collapse – business live

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Greed has been blamed for the failure to agree a rescue deal for Wilko, as MPs prepare to examine the collapse of the discount retailer this autumn.

Doug Putman, the billionaire Canadian business executive, says he came very close to agreeing a deal that would have saved thousands of jobs, but was thwarted by the homeware chain’s suppliers.

Putman told Radio 4’s Today Programme that he really thought he had a deal to take over Wilko, which closed its doors last month with the loss of around 12,000 jobs.

But, he explains, companies – such as Wilko’s IT suppliers – refused to budge on fees they wanted to charge for the transition.

Putman says these companies were “super inflexible” about cooperating for the “four months or so” that he would have needed their systems before transitioning to his own.

Putman, who owns HMV, says:

I thought we did have a deal. We thought we would, we would get that over the line….

But for those four months, the amount of money that the companies wanted to charge made the Wilco deal literally impossible to do. And that was something that was found out really late in the game.

He cites a landlord who hosted Wilko’s servers, in a tiny room, but wanted to charge rent on their whole million square feet facility for Putman to keep the server.

He explains:

So I would say everyone just got a little bit greedy, and unfortunately, weren’t thinking about the 10,000-plus jobs that would have been saved and were only thinking about their little piece of it.

Wilko fell into administration in August, as it struggled with debts of £625m.

Putman offered to take on up to 350 of Wilko’s 400 stores and ensure the main creditors – led by the restructuring specialist Hilco – were paid. But that offer collapsed in mid-September, and was followed by the closure of the company.

Putman says today:

PwC [Wilko’s administrators] really wanted a deal. We wanted a deal. We had a deal.

We had an agreement and I think these things came out of the woodwork for both of us, where we were both a bit stunned.

MPs on the Business and Trade Committee will dig into the colllapse of Wilko today, when they hold a hearing with the firm’s former chair, Lisa Wilkinson (who stepped down in January) and Mark Jackson, the company’s CEO.

The committee say they will examine:

• the Wilkinson family’s justification for taking millions of pounds in dividends out of the firm, even when it was heavily indebted;

• what attempts were made to save the business and whether crucial advice was ignored; and

• the £50 million shortfall in the company’s pension fund.

They’ll also hear from union representatives and industry experts about what went wrong, and quiz business minister Kevin Hollinrake.

Here’s a post from the committee from last night:

The agenda

• 10am GMT: Business and Trade committee hearing on Wilko’s collapse begins

• 10.15am GMT: Treasury committee questions OBR officials on autumn statement

• 2pm GMT: US house price index for October

• 2.15pm GMT: Treasury committee questions economists on autumn statement

• 3pm GMT: US consumer confidence index for October