Poundland extends frozen offer

The latest phase of the Walsall-based business's rollout – under what is known internally as Project Diamond Ice – got underway quietly 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 moving sites, as well as investment in refreshing and refurbishing existing stores.

It includes a new local Poundland at Boldmere Road in Sutton Coldfield.

It will be the first local convenience Pouldland in the West Midlands and is replacing the former Nisa store.

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 well on track to reach 350 by autumn and as many as 500 in 2023.

Frozen food sales at Poundland are accelerating as customers realise the power 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.

Austin Cooke, 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.”

The chilled and frozen food programme has been accelerated following the acquisition of Fultons Foods in 2020 and the expansion of Fultons’ distribution centre in Barnsley and Poundland’s distribution centre in Harlow, Essex.

Pound;and, which opened its first store in Burton upon Trent in 1990, now has a network of more than 850 stores in the UK and the Republic of Ireland and employs more than 18,000 who serve over seven million customers a week.