Kate Palmer, HR Advice and Consultancy Director at Peninsula says: “Such an announcement will of course be unsettling and worrying for employees. Even when a company goes into administration and a buyer cannot be found, the affected employees should still be consulted in a meaningful way before any final decisions on making redundancies are reached.

“Where the numbers at any one establishment are such that collective consultation is triggered, such consultation will need to take place over a long enough period to ensure that the legal requirements are satisfied.

“The purpose of the consultation is so that all avenues are explored. This should include considering whether there are any other ways in which the redundancies could be avoided and exploring whether there is any suitable alternative employment that could be offered.

“Given the circumstances with Wilko it could be that there may be few options and alternatives, however, consultation and a fair process should still be followed in most cases.

“A minority of stores it appears could be bought by another retailer, this may mean that the TUPE regulations apply so employees transfer to a new employer, with terms protected.

“However, there are certain situations when the application of TUPE is specifically excluded, so we will have to wait to see what happens to these stores.”