Record Christmas for Poundland
Poundland enjoyed a record festive season, overcoming 'tough' trading conditions to pull in more than seven million customers during Christmas week.
The Black Country-based chain posted a record sales figure for the last three months of 2014, up 9.8 per cent to £328.4 million.
Chief executive Jim McCarthy said: "I am pleased to report another good quarter of sales growth and a record Christmas trading period.
"Despite the tough trading conditions, Poundland continued to perform well and we served more than seven million shoppers in the peak Christmas trading week alone.
"We have managed our costs and cash well, and we are in line with our financial expectations for the year as a whole. We are on track to open 60 net new stores in the UK and Ireland and we have a very strong pipeline for our 2016 financial year."
The company, based off the Black Country Route in Willenhall, has put plans for an online operation on the back-burner as it concentrates on expanding its estate of stores across the UK, Ireland and now Spain, where it has opened five shops over the last few months.
Poundland says its opened 17 new stores in the last three months. By the start of this year, it had 534 in the UK and 38 Dealz stores in Ireland.
Its expansion will see it recruiting another 100 staff for its distribution warehouse at Bilston in the coming weeks.
It currently has around 750 people based across the Bilston site and its headquarters in Willenhall.
The company floated on the Stock Market last year and its shares are currently around 340p each, valuing the business at more than £900 million.
In its update yesterday, it said it had generated strong cash flow over the three months, ending the quarter with net cash of £33.9 million – nearly triple the amount at the same point the year before.
