Poundland opening in Telford as more former Wilkos are converted

Another 10 former Wilko stores will also open as Poundlands the same day.

The new store at Telford Forge Retail Park on Collier Way is in a former Outfit unit. The 12,000 sq ft shop will carry Walsall-based Poundland’s full range of groceries, clothing and homewares.

Poundland also has 1,200 temporary seasonal roles available at its stores across the country to help with the busy Christmas period.

The former Wilkos are in Worcester, Melton Mowbray, Matlock, Chepstow, Nottingham, Ellesmere Port, Brigg, Redruth, Ferndown and Pontypool.

Just like the former Wilko stores that opened as Poundland last weekend, including Stafford, each of these 10 new stores will have extensive grocery, household and general merchandise ranges.

Each of the new Wilkos will also have the same Pepco family clothing that is now also rolling out to 500-plus of Poundland’s existing UK and Ireland stores.

Poundland’s managing director Austin Cooke said: “Our people make Poundland special and last week they did an amazing job to turn ex-Wilko stores into brand new Poundlands in just six days – the size and scale of what they’ve achieved has been nothing short of phenomenal.

“But they worked hard because we meant what we said about moving quickly to create jobs for Wilko colleagues.

“And that’s why we’ll pull out all the stops to repeat that feat and open another 10 stores this weekend.

“I know from meeting our new colleagues from Wilko, how delighted they were to welcome customers old and new back to their store last weekend – and that’s inspiring us to keep the pace up and bring the amazing value we promise to more high streets this Saturday.

“And while it will take a little time to get the converted Wilkos quite as we’d like, by opening swiftly we’re protecting jobs, adding amazing value to the high street, and putting more stores and products closer to our customers when they need it most.

“That makes our mission to open them as speedily as we can, so important.”

Over the course of the just the last three weeks, Poundland has been prioritising former Wilko colleagues for roles in Poundland.

So far more than 200 job offers have been made to ex-Wilko people with that number increasing day-by-day.

Poundland continues to encourage former Wilko colleagues to follow Poundland’s posts on LinkedIn or visit www.poundlandcareers.com to find details of open roles and how to apply for them.

Poundland intends to carry out a fuller makeover of converted Wilko stores in 2024 so they can complete their journeys to become fully operational Poundlands.