
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Wilkinson - or Wilko as it became known - was a privately-owned family business that had been successful for decades, offering low-priced household products from its chain of high street stores.
So why did it falter during a cost-of-living crisis when people were looking for value?
The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, investigates how its stores ended up toast, in the company of resident business expert and entrepreneur, Sam White.
To help explain what happened, Sean and Sam delve into the parliamentary archives and hear from expert guests including Gordon Brown who was Wilkinson's managing director for 15 years and Patrick O'Brien, Research Director at GlobalData who has followed the fortunes of high street names for over a decade.
If you have a good idea for an interesting Toast topic then tell us about it - email [email protected]
Produced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
By BBC Radio 44.6
8787 ratings
Wilkinson - or Wilko as it became known - was a privately-owned family business that had been successful for decades, offering low-priced household products from its chain of high street stores.
So why did it falter during a cost-of-living crisis when people were looking for value?
The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, investigates how its stores ended up toast, in the company of resident business expert and entrepreneur, Sam White.
To help explain what happened, Sean and Sam delve into the parliamentary archives and hear from expert guests including Gordon Brown who was Wilkinson's managing director for 15 years and Patrick O'Brien, Research Director at GlobalData who has followed the fortunes of high street names for over a decade.
If you have a good idea for an interesting Toast topic then tell us about it - email [email protected]
Produced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

7,639 Listeners

876 Listeners

1,046 Listeners

43 Listeners

5,520 Listeners

1,799 Listeners

1,763 Listeners

1,049 Listeners

2,110 Listeners

1,920 Listeners

1,979 Listeners

259 Listeners

407 Listeners

83 Listeners

757 Listeners

217 Listeners

78 Listeners

476 Listeners

3,177 Listeners

1,003 Listeners

720 Listeners

1,002 Listeners

201 Listeners

94 Listeners

13 Listeners