Express & Star

More new Poundland stores opening before Christmas

Poundland has now made offers of employment to more than 800 former Wilko Staff.

Published

Walsall-based Poundland continues to prioritise former Wilko staff for roles in Poundland and is encouraging them to follow its posts on LinkedIn or visit poundlandcareers.co.uk to find details of open roles and how to apply for them.

Another seven former Wilko stores will re-open as Poundland before Christmas bringing the total of former Wilko stores that are beginning their Poundland journeys to 63.

With four new relocations now scheduled in addition to the 19 it had already announced, that would mean in a single three-month period, Poundland would open around 1million sq ft of new space and 86 stores.

Last month Poundland confirmed it intended to open or relocate 75 stores over the three months to the end of December – the largest three-month growth programme in its history.

That programme has now been boosted by the addition of more Wilko stores to the programme and the addition of three additional relocations to the schedule.

This quarter, Poundland's new store openings have included Telford (Forge Retail Park) and Stafford (Queens Retail Park).

Openings on December 2 include 34-35 High Street, Newport, Shropshire, and December 9 at The Fort Shopping Park, Birmingham.

All new Poundland stores – both Wilko and non-Wilko units – will feature the latest Pepco family clothing that has rolled out to 560 of Poundland’s existing UK and Ireland stores.

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 86 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."