Setting Out a Century of Success

Approaching its 90th year in business, retail giant wilko came to Enthuse with a clear objective: how could the brand communicate an ambitious internal strategy - embodying its history and future - with team members?

The Client

Founded in 1930, wilko is a familiar, much-loved name on UK high streets. With strong core values around supporting busy British families to be the best they can be through creative product development, team spirit, respect, and care, wilko employs thousands of team members across more than 400 high street stores, two distribution centres and an expansive support centre in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

The Challenge

Looking ahead to its 100th anniversary, wilko created an aspirational undertaking to launch a plan that would see it grow over the final decade of its first century: ‘Shape Our Future 2030’.

Through a former business connection, wilko management approached Enthuse with a challenge: how could they launch this wide-reaching plan for the future during a period of change within its internal communications team?

While wilko had an internal team in place, it was in the process of recruiting a new head of communications. Therefore, to ensure ‘Shape Our Future 2030’ landed successfully with team members, they invited us to step in and manage the team and the strategy launch while the recruitment process to fill that role on a permanent basis continued.

The Objective

Aiming to inspire, inform and motivate its team members on how the business planned to move forward in the current retail landscape, ‘Shape Our Future 2030’ also embraced the brand’s history and legacy.

Homing in on what makes wilko special, the wilko leadership team’s plan also reflected the current challenges facing the British high street. Incorporating all of these unique elements, wilko wanted to engage team members across the UK to share its vision for the future and the plan for the next ten years.

Therefore, our objective was to come up with a series of ideas to generate excitement about the project, while keeping the internal communications team on-task in the temporary absence of a departmental lead.

The Solution

Immersing ourselves in wilko’s internal structure and brand values, we put forward the idea of generating a buzz about ‘Shape Our Future 2030’ at an off-site launch event for the entire team working at wilko’s head office, which they refer to as its “support centre”.

Held at a city centre hotel, the launch would see all support centre team members transported to the event to discover the board’s plans for the future.

Image Source: wilko Twitter feed @wilkoloves

Working closely with board members, we crafted the narrative around wilko’s history and future, incorporating what team members and customers love about the brand, as well as addressing the current challenges it was experiencing.

We scripted presentations for board members to communicate in front of team members, working with wilko’s internal and external partners to create slides and graphics visualising and promoting the strategy.

Importantly, we also managed rehearsals for the event to ensure it ran smoothly and successfully – a key element many companies overlook in the planning of major internal and external events.

Further to this, the Enthuse team formulated a strategy on how wilko could then communicate the project to team members working across its 400+ stores and logistics function.

To achieve this, we reviewed and refined wilko’s existing channels to ensure a regular drumbeat of communication would reach all team members.

The Results

As a result of our involvement, the support centre launch event was deemed a phenomenal success by board directors and was received with overwhelming positivity by team members.

Furthermore, we supported wilko’s in-house communications team to apply strategic thinking to all subsequent activity, helping them to implement all campaigns effectively.

Almost three years on, ‘Shape Our Future 2030’ continues to help all of wilko’s team members to understand how every piece of the jigsaw fits together when it comes to the brand’s past, present and future. Everything stems from that initial strategy, and the wilko team remains committed to strengthening the business and putting its transformation plans into action on its run-up to its centenary year.

The Enthuse Difference

The Enthuse difference manifested in three critical ways during our work on wilko’s ‘Shape Our Future 2030’ project.

Firstly, we took the time to understand how wilko functioned, bringing our experience of working with similar organisations to achieve a deep comprehension of the business and its unique culture built around its family ownership. Andrea had spent 12 years working in-house for a large family business with a similar ethos, which enabled her to develop an appreciation of how wilko operated.

Secondly, we understand people and build relationships from the shop floor to the boardroom that enable us to drive successful communications at all levels.

Finally, we’re able to partner with internal and external agencies to get the job done properly. We’re not precious about who does what, as ultimately, we’re all contributing to the project’s success. Therefore, we’ll happily work alongside our preferred suppliers, your in-house team or your chosen agencies – whatever it takes to achieve our shared goals.

Our role is to bring the energy, experience and insight to the project to guarantee its outcome exceeds your goals and expectations.

To speak to us about setting up or improving a communication strategy for your business – whatever your objectives are – contact us to see how we can help you achieve your aspirations. Call us on 07812 343310 or email andrea.law@enthuse-comms.co.uk.