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A MAJOR retailer with 825 stores will close another site in weeks, in a blow to locals.
Poundland is preparing to close it’s branch in Brackla, Wales.
AlamyPoundland is closing another store in May[/caption]
The store will close on May 24, giving shoppers just over a month to say their goodbyes.
It will come as a blow to shoppers who in the past described it as “excellent”.
Another reviewer said: “[It’s] Brilliant. Your expectations are met and sometimes exceeded. The staff are really nice too”.
While a third said the store has “got near everything you could need and more”.
But it is not all bad news as The Sun has been told the branch will be consolidating with another Poundland site that is 500 yards away.
That means loyal shoppers will not have to travel far to get their fix.
It comes just days after it was revealed Poundland would close a branch in Clapham Junction station next week.
The store will close on May 2, giving shoppers till next Friday to bid their farewells.
A closing down sign posted inside the shop read: “We’re closing
2nd May.. Don’t worry, we have another great store in the Southside Shopping Centre near Specsavers.”
A Poundland spokesperson told The Sun: “We know how disappointing our closure at Clapham Junction will be to customers and we looking forward to welcoming them to our store nearby at the Southside shopping centre in Wandsworth.”
It draws a line under a near three year stint in the busy London train station, having first opened back in 2022.
And it’s not the only store Poudland intends to close next month.
Pepco, the group’s parent company, confirmed to The Sun earlier this month it would also close a branch in Liverpool on May 6.
The chain is preparing to shut its branch in the Belle Valle shopping centre.
Just last month, it was forced to close a branch in Belfast after the Connswater Shopping Centre was put into receivership.
The shop closed at the end of March, with a major clothing down sale launched.
In October, Maidenhead residents were also left heartbroken following the closure of a Poundland branch.
This was on top of closures in in Sutton Coldfield on October 5 and the closure of its Macclesfield site last August after it was unable to secure a new lease agreement.
WHAT IS GOING ON AT POUNDLAND
Last month, its parent company Pepco is said to have hired advisory firm Teneo to oversee the sale of the UK business.
It comes after Pepco said it was looking at “all strategic options” to separate Poundland from its brand.
The Polish group said it might turn its focus to its more profitable businesses in Europe.
Pepco previously warned that upcoming hikes to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and national minimum wage would significantly add to its costs.
Late last year, it was revealed that profits at Poundland also tumbled by £641million in the year to September, with bosses again blaming slow sales amid a poor outlook thanks to measures set out by Reeves
A spokesperson also said the huge loss was “due to a non-cash impairment at Poundland that relates to the acquisition of the UK chain in 2016”.
This means the value of the business has decreased because of an expectation that future cash flows will fall.
More recently, Poundland also saw revenue fall by 9.3% for the three months to December
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.”
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