Poundland completes 87 new store opening in 70 days

Next Saturday (9 December) Poundland will complete the opening of 87 new stores in just 70 days as new stores open their doors in 10 locations. Poundland’s biggest-ever single quarterly opening programme has added around 1m square feet of new space as it opened and relocated stores into bigger premises. The retailer has moved quickly to open former Wilko stores as Poundlands and by Saturday, 64 of them will be trading again, with over 800 former Wilko colleagues joining the Poundland team. Of the 10 new stores opening this weekend, seven are part of Poundland’s organic growth programme, including in Falkirk, London, Sligo Wells, Birmingham, Plymouth, and Cumbernauld. A further three Wilko stores in Chester, Swindon and Fareham, will also begin their Poundland journeys this Saturday, bringing the total number of rapid Wilko-to-Poundland conversions to 64. In Chester and Fareham, Poundland has been working on relocating into the Wilko units from existing nearby stores. All new Poundland stores – both Wilko and non-Wilko units – will feature the very latest Pepco family clothing that is now in over 600 of Poundland’s existing UK and Ireland stores. The clothing ranges feature new ranges from lifestyle and athleisure brands such as Cardio Bunny and Bekkin and a significant increase in the space dedicated to baby and kidswear. Austin Cooke, Poundland’s managing director said: “We excitedly continue to open and relocate stores at pace so we can bring our best offer, including all-new clothing, chilled and frozen food to customers, existing and new. The monumental effort from our teams continues to amaze me, and it supports jobs and high streets right across Britain. “That's 87 stores in 70 days that we'll have opened successfully, and no one should underestimate the effort and energy that our teams have put into delivering that achievement - I certainly don’t. It’s phenomenal!”