Poundland shuts 149 stores, cuts 2,200 jobs and focuses on £1 items
Poundland has shut 149 stores with the loss of 2,200 jobs under a rescue shake-up launched after challenging trading conditions and unpopular clothing ranges sent it into the red.The company, which was itself bought for £1 from Pepco Group by the US restructuring specialist Gordon Brothers in June last year, said it had refocused on £1 items, with 60% of its stock now at that price.It is also relaunching its Pep & Co clothing brand after a switch to ranges supplied by its former parent group hit sales.Adult clothing will be in stores by the end of this month, with children’s and baby wear arriving in February.Poundland said underlying profits had more than doubled to £17.
3m in the three months to 28 December compared with the same period a year before.The number of items sold was up 2% but sales at established stores fell 2.9%, even excluding categories it no longer sells.The closures are part of a restructure first announced last June after the retailer dived to a £51m pre-tax loss in 2024.The plans included shutting at least 68 stores and up to 80 more, cutting rents, stopping online sales, ditching its Perks loyalty app, and no longer offering frozen and most chilled foods.
Poundland’s frozen and digital distribution centre at Darton, South Yorkshire, and its national distribution centre at Springvale in Bilston, West Midlands, have now closed, while two other distribution centres, in Wigan and Harlow, continue to operate.The company, which was founded in 1990 with its first store in Burton upon Trent, has faced a tough trading period in recent years amid rising costs on business rates, energy, staff and heavy competition from the likes of The Range, B&M Home Bargains, Savers as well as supermarkets and low price online specialists such as Temu and Shein.There has already been some consolidation in the discount retail sector including the demise of the major player Wilko in 2023, which was left with only a few stores after The Range snapped up the brand.Poundland’s rival, Poundstretcher, was bought in 2024 by Majestic Wine’s owner, Fortress.Another rival, Poundworld, closed its 350 stores in 2018 and Poundland bought its rival 99p Stores in 2015.
Barry Williams, the managing director of Poundland, said the significant store closures were now finished, adding: “We have clear indications from the work we’ve already done, that we’re on the right track.“While there’s been significant progress as we re-focus and re-energise the business with lower prices and a sharper offer, we know we still have much to do.Our focus on our costs has, without doubt, given us a platform for future growth, but no sustainable turnaround can be based on cost management alone.”He said customers had indicated that they wanted a simpler offer which “keeps its promise of amazing value … That’s why our focus in 2026 will be on delivering the kind of ranges and price simplicity our customers want right across the store – in clothing, homewares as well as our core grocery aisles.”Gordon Brothers, a former owner of Laura Ashley, said it would invest up to £80m in Poundland to help turn the business around.
Nigel Farage’s trip to Davos hosted and paid for by family trust of billionaire
Nigel Farage’s trip to Davos this week was hosted and paid for by the $10bn family trust of an Iranian-born billionaire, the Guardian has learned.The leader of Reform UK has been touring Davos this week, giving speeches in which he pledged to tax banks and “fight the globalists”.But in a surprising entry, he is listed on the programme for the World Economic Forum as a member of parliament and a representative of HP Trust, which describes itself as the “family office of Sasan Ghandehari” with a portfolio value in excess of $10bn (£7.4bn).A representative for the trust said Farage had been invited to Davos by Ghandehari, a venture capitalist, as an honorary and unpaid adviser to his impact investment portfolio focused on philanthropic activities, particularly in the Middle East
UK politics: Trump’s Nato claims ‘insulting and frankly appalling’, says Starmer –as it happened
Keir Starmer has condemned Donald Trump’s claim that Nato allies did no properly fight alongside the US in Afghanistion. In a pooled clip that has just been broadcast, he sounded genuinely angry.Starmer said:Let me start by paying tribute to 457 of our armed services who lost their lives in Afghanistan.I will never forget their courage, their bravery and the sacrifice that they made for their country.There are many also who were injured, some with life-changing injuries
French authorities ban British far-right activists from gathering at weekend
French authorities have announced a sweeping ban on British far-right activists planning to take part in a “stop the boats” protest against asylum seekers hoping to cross the Channel to the UK.Friday’s announcement by the prefecture in northern France goes further than a previous ban by the French interior ministry on 10 unnamed far-right activists associated with the organisation Raise the Colours for “having carried out actions on French soil”.The ban, from the Nord and Pas-de-Calais prefecture, aims to prevent British far-right activists involved in “Operation Overlord” from travelling to France this weekend. The ban comes into force at 11pm on Friday evening and continues until 8am on Monday morning.Operation Overlord was launched by Raise the Colours, an anti-migrant group placing England flags and union jacks on lamp-posts
Starmer stands up to Trump at last and has chance to make case for Europe
“Serious, calm, pragmatic, behind-the-scenes diplomacy” is how No 10 has been describing Keir Starmer’s approach to the chaotic world of Donald Trump’s administration.That may have been how the week started – and tiptoeing around Trump’s volatility has been the hallmark of Starmer’s relationship with the president for a whole year. But the president’s two major digs at Britain, first over the Chagos Islands and then, more seriously, his claim that UK troops did not pull their weight in Afghanistan, have finally provoked Starmer into a furious rebuttal.Starmer’s demand for an apology over the “insulting and frankly appalling” words from an unrepentant Trump marks the worst week for US-UK relations since the president took over last year.The prime minister’s two televised press statements this week are a sign of his exasperation with Trump’s remarks about the UK – and he appeared ready at last to draw a line in the sand about what is unacceptable to say about an ally
Can Andy Burnham calm the anger in a Manchester seat Labour fears losing?
When leaked WhatsApp messages sent by former minister Andrew Gwynne were published last year, Stuart Beard was astonished at the scenes outside his office in Denton town square.“There must have been about 60 pensioners with placards,” he said, referring to local anger over Gwynne’s derogatory texts, which included one saying he hoped an elderly woman who didn’t vote Labour “croaked it” before the next election.“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Beard. “It was like a riot – it was quite funny in a way.”The circus will return to this diverse Manchester constituency after Gwynne’s resignation triggered a potentially seismic byelection that could pave the way for Andy Burnham’s much-hyped return to Westminster
‘We have a clear agenda’: the teenager who broke news of Tory MP’s defection to Reform
Andrew Rosindell had been tipped as a potential Reform recruit long before his defection from the Conservatives last weekend took Westminster by surprise.Yet as he and Nigel Farage basked in the spotlight outside parliament on Monday, more than 200 miles away in the town of Whitby, North Yorkshire, a 15-year-old schoolboy was also savouring the moment.Incredibly – at least to those unfamiliar with the rise of his burgeoning media enterprise – Charlie Simpson appeared to have scooped all other media by predicting on the evening before that the Essex MP would join Reform.“EXCLUSIVE: MP Andrew Rosindell has reached an agreement to defect to Reform UK,” Charlie tweeted on Saturday, prompting derision from other users of X and pressure from Rosindell’s office to take down the tweet.But the following day, Rosindell, who was a shadow Foreign Office minister under Kemi Badenoch, announced on X he had quit the Conservative party “with sorrow” after 25 years and had decided to join Reform “following a conversation with Nigel Farage earlier in the evening”
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