Wilko workers on life after the retailer's collapse

It has been nearly a month since the last Wilko shops closed their doors - but a lot can happen in a short space of time.

On Friday, CDS Superstores, which bought the name and website after the firm collapsed, said it would open a Wilko-branded store in Luton before Christmas.

It is one of five new Wilko shops that will return to the High Street before Christmas. The others will be in Plymouth and Exeter, as well as two additional locations still to be announced.

Under the plan announced by CDS Superstores, which owns The Range, former Wilko workers will be given priority when applying for the 80 jobs that are on offer per store.

While it brings hope to some former Wilko staff, more than 12,000 people were made redundant when the retailer went under.

Some have found new jobs, but for others it has been a struggle. The BBC spoke to four ex-workers about how they've been navigating life after Wilko

Lisa Swan from Gateshead was just 17 when she started working at Wilko.

Since being made redundant, the 41-year-old said she has felt depressed. "It's like those 24 years of loyalty didn't mean anything," she said.

Despite all the support pledged for Wilko workers, Lisa said: "It just feels like we've been left on our own."

Poundland, which took over some Wilko shops, had pledged to prioritise former staff and told the BBC it has made more than 700 job offers. But Lisa was disappointed not to get an interview when Poundland took over her Wilko store.

Lisa has been searching for full-time work but has found that many retailers are looking for part-time workers. Meanwhile, other companies don't even respond to job applications at all.

Although Lisa said she is now feeling a little more hopeful, the first few weeks of job searching after being made redundant were a challenge given she had spent nearly a quarter of a century at the same place.

"When you've done a job for such a long time, it's a hard adjustment not having work," she said.

"Different things rattle through your brain, whether it's thinking you're not good enough, or wondering if you're being unrealistic in what you're trying to achieve."

Like Lisa, Matt Jonas from Canterbury hoped to benefit from some of the retailers who had offered to take on Wilko staff.

But so far, that help has failed to materialise.

"It's interesting how when the time came, those opportunities weren't there," said Matt, who worked at Wilko for five years.

Despite applying for a job a day, he said he's only had one face-to-face interview.

"It feels like the job market has got much less personal," Matt said. "You have these one-way interviews where you answer questions on a webcam and send the video to someone."

While navigating the jobs market, Matt is also feeling anxious about whether there is any work in retail.

"Poundworld, where I used to work, is still an empty building five years after I was made redundant there. The Wilko building is now empty. High Street retail - I have become quite disillusioned with now."

He describes his former colleagues at Wilko as "like a family."

"I keep waking up and hoping that this was all a crazy dream and I'm still working there," he said. "It's crushing."

After 15 years at Wilko, Tina Bellamy from Lincolnshire was devastated about the closure.

But within hours of the shop shutting, she'd been offered a new job with Poundland which was taking over the shop - as were all of her colleagues.

"We all know what we're doing, so we've just cracked on," she said, adding that the only new thing she's had to get used to is the uniform.

Their first task was to ready the shop - now rebranded as Poundland - for reopening within a few days.

When they did, one of the best things, she said, has been customers' reactions.

"It's so nice when they say, 'we're so pleased you're here, we were so worried about you all.'"

Poundland took on the leases of up to 71 former Wilko stores and the retailer said it has since reopened 56 sites.

Sarah Curtis was a supervisor at Wilko in Essex's Lakeside shopping centre when it fell into administration.

She hadn't been there long enough to qualify for redundancy and needed a new job quickly. "I was entitled to a week's notice [and] pay and that was it," she said.

Luckily, she was offered a job by her previous employer, Superdrug, and she's very happy to be back.

But to get there, she has to walk past her old Wilko store, which is still sitting empty.

The first few times, she said it made her cry.

"It makes me feel sad," she said. "It was so much fun, it didn't feel like you were going to work, we had such a laugh."

Despite being there only a year, she said she's grateful for the confidence her experience at Wilko gave her - as well as her former co-workers.

"On our last day we sang and danced as we left. It was the end, but we were still a team," she said. "I'm probably not going to see those people together again."

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