Anthony Harwick Wilkinson (born April 1937) is a British businessman, who was the co-owner and former chairman of the British high street chain

Wilko Wilko.com Limited (trading as Wilko) is a British Variety store, variety retailer. It was founded as Wilkinson by James Kemsey Wilkinson and Mary Cooper in 1930 as a hardware retailer, opening its first store in Leicester. In 1972, Tony Wil ...

Early life

Anthony Harwick Wilkinson was born in April 1937, the son of

founder James Kemsey Wilkinson and his wife Mary Cooper.

Career

When Tony Wilkinson retired as chairman of Wilko after 45 years in June 2005, he was replaced by his niece, Karin Swann, and his daughter, Lisa Wilkinson. In 2014, Karin Swann sold her family's 50% holding in the business to Lisa Wilkinson. In May 2019, the ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...

'' estimated his net worth at £252 million. Following his retirement and Karin Swann's share sale, daughter Lisa Wilkinson oversaw the Wilko chain's eventual collapse, as it entered

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

on 10 August 2023.

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

(PwC) was appointed administrator to the business the same day. During the administration of the business, it transpired its ownership had taken £77m out of the business in the preceding decade.

References

1937 births English businesspeople Living people {{UK-business-bio-1930s-stub