Budget retailer Poundland has announced the rollout of its new look stores, with new openings and revamps that bring wider ranges including chilled and frozen food and its own clothing. The latest phase of the rollout got underway in January with a string of new stores and relocations, from the north east to the south of England.
In April and May, the programme will include new openings and resites, as well as investment in refreshing and refurbishing existing stores. Most of the new stores will have dedicated PEP&CO sections offering clothing for the whole family and homeware and the revamps will allow those stores that already have PEP&CO to offer wider ranges.
The rollout will bring chilled and frozen to more customers in England and north Wales and, for the first time, in Northern Ireland. It will mean chilled and frozen food will be available in another 30 stores by summer, taking the total to around 300 and putting Poundland on track to reach 350 by autumn and as many as 500 in 2023, enabling customers to buy more of what they need in a single shopping trip.
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Frozen food sales at Poundland are increasing as customers realise the importance of frozen food in managing tight budgets that need to stretch to pay increasing energy and fuel costs. Poundland has seen strong growth in frozen food sales this year as customers look to cut back on food waste and make every pound count.
Among those to get the new ranges already this year are the new Nottingham Riverside Retail Park and Teesside Park stores which opened in February and set new records as the largest Poundland stores in the country. Other new stores and relocations to get chilled and frozen ranges since January were Deal, Willerby, Sheffield Heeley and Tonbridge.
Over the next three months, chilled and frozen will be introduced at stores stretching from Prestatyn to Lewisham. And as the programme is stepped up later in the year, it will extend much further north and south than before as Poundland extends its chilled and frozen distribution capability.
Austin Cooke, Poundland retail and transformation director, said: “The focus so far this year has been on our new stores, including our fantastic Nottingham Riverside and Teesside Park stores, and now we’re ready to resume the roll out of our Diamond programme across dozens more stores. That means fresh-looking shops, with exciting new product ranges including chilled and frozen, more PEP&CO clothing departments, and some surprises too!
“We know how important chilled and frozen food is to our customers as they seek to manage their spending and make sure everything they buy, gets eaten with as little wastage as possible. Our roll out brings even more of the ranges our customers love at amazing prices, to new locations across the country. We know better than anyone, that good value is more important to them than ever.”
