Darbyshire, who joins CDS Superstores as its new head of property, will be responsible for the rollout of Wilko’s concept stores across the UK and Northern Ireland.

The discount chain, which was rescued out of administration by The Range last September, is set to open its sixth store in Poole on Friday (16 August) following successful openings in Exeter, Luton, Plymouth, Rotherham and St Albans.

Darbyshire, who will also spearhead increasing The Range’s more than 200 store portfolio, has over 30 years of retail property experience and currently serves as Matalan’s director of property, where he has spent the last ten years.

Prior to that, he spent nine years as head of property for Frasers Group’s Sports Direct.

CDS Superstores chief executive Alex Simpkin said: “We are thrilled to welcome Antony to our leadership team. His extensive experience and expertise in property management are exactly what we need as we accelerate our expansion plans and build on our success to date.

“Antony will play a critical role in ensuring that both The Range and Wilko continue to thrive and reach even more communities across the UK.

“We are particularly excited about the opportunities to regrow the Wilko brand through our innovative new concept stores and encourage landlords with suitable spaces to proactively contact us regarding potential occupancy as we ramp up our store launch programme.”

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Shoppers will be able to use the service for the last time on 18 August, The Grocer reported.

The discounter’s click-and-collect option saw staff members bring customers their online shopping order in the store’s car park for a fee of £4.99.

The grocery giant said scrapping the trial, which had been under review since its launch, would help it run its stores more efficiently and maintain a price advantage over its competitors.

A spokesman for the supermarket told the publication: “At Aldi, our focus is on providing customers with high-quality products at the lowest possible prices.

“One of the ways we keep our prices low for customers is by running the most efficient supermarket business in Britain. As a result, we’ve made the decision to bring our click-and-collect service to an end so we can focus on doing just that.”

Last year, Aldi scrapped its home delivery of alcohol and Specialbuys, after rolling out the service in 2015. In 2022, it also ended its grocery delivery partnership with Deliveroo.

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Amalgamated Holdings Wilkinson Limited (AHWL), which is owned by the founding family, said in new documents that its directors, including the retailer’s former chair Lisa Wilkinson, “do not believe there is a liability for AHWL in respect to any [pension] deficit arising” after taking legal advice, The Financial Times reported.

The UK pensions regulator has been considering taking action against Wilko after it collapsed with the substantial pension shortfall last August. The retailer paid out £77m in dividends to investors during the decade leading up to its demise, although AHWL said it had not paid dividends itself.

AHWL was originally set up as the management vehicle for the owners of Wilko and its subsidiaries, with its principal activity to “develop and manage a diversified portfolio of business investments”. 

The pensions watchdog has the power to pursue owners to plug pension gaps if their actions have put savings at risk. 

In the documents, AHWL directors said “they have received no indication of an actual or potential claim arising from the process to date”.

It acknowledged that the regulator’s powers were “extensive” but it cited several reasons why it believed it was not liable, including that AHWL “has never been the sponsoring employer for the Wilko pension scheme” and “when periodically asked about dividends, as shareholder, the directors…expressed a view that pension contributions be prioritised over dividends”.

AHWL added that its directors had believed the scheme was “appropriately and properly funded” especially after the retailer was given security over £20m of Wilko property, and annual contributions increased from £4.75m to £8.4m from 2022. 

Wilko plunged into administration in August last year after several months of teetering on the brink.

The value retailer, which started life as a hardware store in Leicester in the 1930s, fell behind as rival chains including B&M, Poundland and The Range found success amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Its assets were snapped up by those competitors with B&M and Poundland acquiring a tranche of stores, while The Range bought the Wilko brand.

It has since reopened Wilko-branded stores, and The Range owner Chris Dawson told Retail Gazette in December that he planned to open up to 40 Wilko stores over the next year.

The Pension Protection Fund could bail out the Wilko pension scheme. It said the scheme “remains in assessment” and that it was “working closely with the scheme trustees to ensure the best outcome for members”. 

The pension regulator told the FT it has engaged with “Wilko, the pension trustees, the administrators and the PPF to make sure members’ benefits are protected”.

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The discount chain is understood to have placed around 60 jobs under consultation across its supply chain, finance, IT and property teams, Retail Gazette has learnt.

It is thought the business is still in conversations with some of the impacted staff.

A spokesperson for Poundland told Retail Gazette: “Providing the amazing value we promise our customers, depends on us delivering a business that is simple and efficient so our costs are as low as possible.

“As part of a recent review, we took action last month to make sure we continued to deliver for customers, removing some central roles where we saw an opportunity to work smarter and more efficiently.

“It goes without saying we’re doing all we can to look after colleagues impacted,” they added.

Last month, Poundland owner Pepco Group reported its third quarter sales fell below expectations as it battled with a challenging transition to its new general merchandise ranges.

Poundland like-for-like sales dropped 6.9% to £404m, which it attributed to challenges related to the introduction of new Pepco-sourced clothing and general merchandise ranges, “which are being addressed”.

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While restrictive covenants, which are clauses that stop rivals opening shops near their competitors, have been subject to a Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) review of grocer land deals, the discounters are not required to meet the rules, according to The Grocer.

This is due to Aldi and Lidl not being part of the market investigation when the laws were formed in 2010, due to their smaller size.

Posting on LinkedIn, the Iceland boss said: “A priority for the Labour government is tackling the after-effects of the cost-of-living crisis… But more can be done to promote competition among supermarkets, not least revisiting the snappily-titled Groceries Market Investigation (Controlled Land) Order 2010: these ban restrictive land agreements, which actively prevent competition between supermarkets by prohibiting other retailers from opening within the same area.

“The German-owned supermarkets were just a twinkling in the CMA’s eye when this order was first made.”

He added: “Fourteen years on, and with the return of a Labour government, surely it is time to look at how the active use of these legal tricks is preventing competition on retail parks in towns across the UK.”

As it stands, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose, M&S and Co-op are prohibited from using restrictive covenants under the Groceries Market Investigation (Controlled Land) Order 2010.

Aldi confirmed it fully complied with planning and competition laws.

Earlier this month, Aldi unveiled plans to open 10 new stores across the UK in the coming months under its rapid expansion plans.

Meanwhile, Lidl hit a new UK record market share level in May, with 8.1% of the market.

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The figure marked a 9.1% rise compared to sales on the first day of the retail giant’s event last year, which came in at £581m.

The spend also represented the biggest online shopping day of the year so far, according to Adobe Analytics.

Amazon product categories that witnessed an uptick in sales included electronics, apparel, and personal care.

Electronics saw the steepest discounts at 18% on average, while appliances experienced the lowest at 8%, the company reported.

Spend using buy now pay later (BNPL) schemes on Amazon was also up 4.7% from last year, hitting £93.7m.

Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya said: “Prime Day has once again proven to be the biggest online shopping event for the UK market with the first 24-hours of the industry-wide sale seeing near double-digit growth and setting a new record for a Prime Day event.

“Consumers seized the opportunity to buy, while competitive discounts across multiple categories helped them to save and maximise the value of their spending.”

He continued: “This acceleration in spend is in-line with what we’ve observed during recent bank holiday and other sales events through 2024, only to a much greater degree.”

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The discount chain is using new instore signage to highlight that more than 1,000 of its grocery items available in every store cost £1 or less.

While the retailer has expanded its ranges in recent years, a third of its products still sit at the £1 price point or below.

Poundland said it “remains committed to offering a significant proportion of its ranges at £1 or below, even as it expands ranges to offer customers amazing value in whole new categories such as chilled and frozen food, homewares and clothing”.

It comes as the retailer is gearing up to roll out its reward scheme across the UK later this year. Poundland Perks is currently available in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Wight.

Poundland like-for-like sales plunged 6.9% to £404m in the three months to 30 June, which it attributed to challenges related to the introduction of new Pepco-sourced clothing and general merchandise ranges, “which are being addressed”.

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Sales for the discount chain edged up 2.4% to £1.34bn in the 13 weeks to 29 June, which it attributed to volume growth and a disciplined store opening programme across the group.

However, like-for-likes at its core UK business fell 3.5%, which it attributed to “exceptionally strong comparatives” last year and poor weather in April and May this year.

Despite the wet weather, B&M noted that its “well-planned seasonal stock buy, particularly in gardening, had delivered high sell-through in the quarter with no markdown risk in spring/summer”.

The retailer added it had made “strong, profitable progress” on its UK expansion plans, opening 19 gross stores in the first quarter putting it on track for its 45 store target. It said that all stores opened since last year are performing ahead of expectations.

B&M chief executive Alex Russo said: “The growth fundamentals of our business are strong, with a highly disciplined approach on pricing, product and high operational standards.

“We continue to offer our customers exceptional value at a time when household incomes are under pressure. Ahead of Q2, we have launched our Everyday Value range with more than 500 new lines in core categories across home, electrical and pet in the UK and France.

“As we transition towards autumn/winter in the months ahead, our relentless focus on Everyday Low Price and Everyday Low Cost will ensure we continue to serve our customers well.”

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Poundland like-for-like sales plunged 6.9% to £404m (€480m), which it attributed to challenges related to the introduction of new Pepco-sourced clothing and general merchandise ranges, “which are being addressed”.

Across the wider Pepco group, like-for-likes fell 4.3%, however group sales rose 8% rise in group sales to £1.18bn (€1.4bn) on a constant currency basis for the three months to 30 June.

The discount chain owner opened 37 new stores during the period, which it said puts it on track to meet its 400 target this year. It closed 20 Poundland stores over the period and opened one.

Pepco Group executive chair Andy Bond said: “We have continued to execute against our strategy to deliver more measured growth – doing less, to achieve more – with a greater focus on improving profitability.

“The improved gross margin trajectory we flagged at the half-year results has continued strongly into the third quarter, and disciplined capital investment is driving strong cash generation. In line with our strategy, we opened a lower number of net new stores in the third quarter, largely focused in our core Pepco Central and Eastern Europe markets where we are delivering the highest returns.

“Group like-for-like revenues in Q3 were below our expectations, partly due to macro factors, such as ongoing supply chain disruption, and company-specific issues, including slower-selling older stock which is being removed through markdown, as well as the transition to Pepco-sourced clothing and general merchandise in Poundland and Dealz.

“We are actively improving the availability and breadth of our ranges, and expect to benefit from these actions in the new financial year.

Despite the weaker than expected third quarter, Bond said he was confident the group would meet its guidance of delivering an EBITDA of around £758m (€900m), a 20% increase on last year.

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The footwear retailer said that on becoming aware of the incident, it “enacted its established IT security protocols and took immediate steps to stop the unauthorised access to its systems and data”.

The firm said specialist third-party consultants have been engaged to “investigate the nature and extent of the incident, and to implement the incident response plan”.

The incident has also been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), ensuring full compliance with regulatory requirements and support from national security bodies.

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The website has remained operational and orders are still being fulfilled and at this stage, any financial impact resulting from the incident is not expected to be material.

In an official statement, the company said, “Shoe Zone takes the issue of data security extremely seriously and any affected individuals will be notified as appropriate and in accordance with applicable regulations.”

Earlier this year the company, which says it sells 13m pairs of shoes a year, reported a slight growth in profits as it revamps its physical store estate. 

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