POUNDLAND has plans to shut another branch with up to 200 more at risk.
The bargain retailer is preparing to shut its last remaining branch in Barrow come next month.
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The store is located on Dalton Road and is set to close on June 12.
It comes just eight months after the affable store shut another branch in the area.
Its site at Hindpool Retail Park closed last autumn, in another blow to shoppers.
The news has come as a blow to locals, with one even describing it as their “second home”.
While another upset shopper said: “Good god we’re going to have nothing left.”
And a third angry local said: “What is wrong with this town???
“Another great shop to close as lease cannot be agreed . Obviously something’s wrong somewhere we have all but killed our once thriving town centre.”
And a fourth wrote: “Another shop going ghost town ridiculous.”
A Poundland spokesperson told The Sun that the store is closing because it has been unable to agree terms that would allow the brand to keep trading there.
The store still has 800 stores trading across the UK.
Poundland already has plans to shut up to three stores over the coming weeks, with now a total of 11 sites planned to shut since the start of the year.
At the end of the month, the retailer’s branch on Chiswick High Road will also shut for good.
This month, stores across Gravesend’s St George’s Centre, Clapham Junction station in London, and Liverpool’s Belle Vale Shopping Centre all pulled down their shutters for the final time.
This comes on top of a closure in Brackla Wales which is due to take place on May 24.
A few months back, Poundland was forced to close a branch in Belfast after the Connswater Shopping Centre was put into receivership.
You can see the full list of closures below:
- Chiswick High Road – closing May 28
- Copdock Mill Interchange Ipswich, closed May 20.
- St George’s Centre, Gravesend – closed last week
- Clapham Junction Station, London – closed May 2
- Belle Vale Shopping Centre, Liverpool – closed May 6
- Brackla, Wales – closing May 24
- Connswater Shopping Centre, Belfast – closed end of March
- Maidenhead – closed October 2024
- Sutton Coldfield – closed early October 2024
- Macclesfield – closed August 2024
- Barrow Dalton Road – closing June 12
WHAT IS GOING ON AT POUNDLAND
It follows reports that up to 200 stores could close as part of a rescue deal of the brand.
Gordon Brothers, the ex-owner of Laura Ashley, has become the frontrunner to takeover the bargain chain, which recently announced a wave of store closures across the UK.
Turnaround Investors were linked with a bid for Poundland.
These firms specialise in buying up struggling businesses in the hopes of turning them around.
Bidding for the business was expected to start this Tuesday.
A source told The Sunday Times that Poundland would be priced at “effectively a pound.”
Several interested parties are reportedly looking at bidding on the UK budget retailer.
Further store closures and job losses would come as a blow to the high street.
Polish retail giant Pepco said it expects the sale of Poundland to complete by September.
Last month, the parent firm is said have hired advisory firm Teneo to oversee the sale of the UK business.
Poundland revenues dropped by 6.5% to 985 million euros (£830 million) for the six months to March, compared with a year earlier.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
