Poundland closes nine former Wilko stores including one in North East just months after opening

Poundland is closing nine former Wilko stores - including one in the North East - just months after opening.

The discount high street chain, owned by the Pepco Group, bought 71 Wilko stores when the chain went into administration last year. Poundland reopened the stores under its own brand, including a former Wilko site in The Viking Centre, Jarrow, South Tyneside.

However, nine of those rebranded shops in the UK have either already closed or are due to shut. The Jarrow store had a closure date of April 20. You can see the full list below.

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A spokesperson for Poundland told The Grocer the move to close the stores was part of a “constant review” of its estate. Staff working at the sites affected have been offered roles in stores nearby, reports the Mirror.

The Poundland spokesman did note that the store in Stafford had been replaced with a new "destination" Poundland in a nearby retail park, while sites in Nelson, Lancashire, had closed due to council plans to knock down and redevelop a shopping centre. According to local reports, the Bradfield Road store in Hillsborough closed on April 20 while the Poundland store in Jackson Square Stortford is closing for good on May 4. On the closures, the spokesperson said: “As you might imagine, Poundland’s store portfolio is under constant review and that review led to those particular closures.”

A Poundland spokesperson told the Mirror: "We moved really quickly to open a significant number of former Wilko stores in the final calendar quarter of 2023 so we could offer roles quickly. While it’s disappointing we haven’t been able to make a small number of them work in the long-term, all the people employed at those stores have been offered roles at nearby locations."

Full list of Poundland stores closing

• Alfreton

• Bishop’s Stortford

• Ealing

• Eccles

• Ellesmere Port

• Hillsborough

• Jarrow

• Nelson

• Stafford