Poundland's Merry Hill store among 44 to enter 'hibernation'
The Poundland store at the Merry Hill shopping centre is being put into temporary hibernation.
The Willenhall-based discount stores chain is replicating the measures it took during the lockdowns of 2020, by closing 44 of its more than 800 stores on a temporary basis from the end of trading on Saturday.
As an essential retailer, the vast majority of its stores will remain open for business to serve their communities.
The temporary measure reflects the 80 per cent drop in footfall at some shopping centres and high streets as the various lockdown rules in place across the UK take effect.
As before, the move protects the business in the short-term, and helps ensure it’s well positioned once the UK emerges from the pandemic.
In the first 2020 lockdown, Poundland hibernated around 120 stores in March and was able to start reopening them from the end of May.
It says hibernation allows it to focus staff in a slightly smaller number of locations and provide better service to communities in consolidated stores. In the majority of locations where Poundland is hibernating, there is another store that remains open nearby.
Where appropriate, colleagues in hibernating stores will be placed on furlough, protecting those roles for the future.
Austin Cooke, Poundland’s retail director said: “We learned valuable lessons during the lockdown in March about how buying patterns change as people stick to government advice to stay at home.
“Putting a small number of stores into hibernation helps protect them for the long term and focus our attention on the majority of stores that remain open to serve their neighbourhoods.
“We hope this lockdown is short and we can re-open our hibernating stores as quickly as possible and we remain grateful for the vital support schemes available to us that help protect jobs.”
Stores at High Street, Solihull, and Castle Walk, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, are also among those being temporarily closed.
