High street carnage continues as final Poundworld closures are confirmed

Andy Hall

The Wakefield head office and distribution centre of Poundworld will close today, resulting in 299 people losing their jobs immediately – with all remaining stores nationwide now set to close, resulting in 2,339 job losses.

Administrators Deloitte were appointed on 11 June, at which point Poundworld operated 335 stores and employed 5,100 people.

Over the last two weeks, Deloitte has made several announcements of store closures while it said it sought a buyer to save some stores.

But last night, it announced the closure of the Wakefield head office and distribution centre and confirmed that a further 78 stores will close next week, making another 907 staff redundant across the UK. Further to this, the balance of 112 stores are scheduled to close by 10 August, resulting in 1,432 job losses.

Delaoitte said employees will be informed directly as to the exact date of individual closures and that discussions will continue between the administrators and interested parties for the potential sale of parts of the remaining business.

Clare Boardman, joint administrator, said: “We would like to thank all the employees for their continued support and commitment during this difficult time. We are keeping staff appraised of developments as they happen.”

The administrators previously confirmed:

  • The closure of 25 stores, announced 10 July 2018 (242 redundancies)
  • The closure of 80 stores, announced 13 July 2018 (1,024 redundancies)
  • The closure of 40 stores, announced 17 July 2018 (531 redundancies)

The chain – now set to disappear from the high street – originated in 1974, when Chris Edwards set up a market stall in Wakefield. Edwards initially set up a store called Bargain Centre, before switching to a single-price format in 1997, trading as “Everything’s £1”. Poundworld was founded in 2004 and since then rolled out its brand across the UK.

Private equity firm TPG, which bought a majority stake in Poundworld in 2015, also controls the restaurant chain Prezzo whose landlords and creditors agreed a restructuring earlier this year.

Poundworld – like many other retailers including House of Fraser, Maplin, Toys R Us – has this year been hit by falling consumer confidence, rising overheads, the weaker pound and the growth of online shopping.It imports much of its stock and is having to pay more for it because of the fall in the value of the pound.

Stores in the region named in the latest round of closures are: Barnsley (9 job losses), Bradford (16 jobs losses), Brighouse (11 job losses), Doncaster (19 job losses), Hull (7 job losses), Leeds (12 job losses), Rotherham (10 job losses).

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