Poundland’s first large-format store in Nottingham is offering more fresh food in a bid to attract customers on a budget to do a weekly shop with the bargain retailer.
The retailer has been trialling fresh food in several stores across the UK, but the Nottingham outlet is the first to stock fruit, vegetables and bread in a main store.
The company aims to add the new ranges to more than 20 other large stores this year. Poundland aims to have chilled and frozen food stock in 350 outlets by autumn 2022.
The new store is three times bigger than the average Poundland store, covering 15,000 square feet. Once fully operational, it is expected to employ 75 full and part-time members of staff.
‘Value for money’
Managing director of Poundland Barry Williams told the BBC that the new outlet and its focus on fresh food is “a natural extension of what our customers are looking for.”
He said: “Our business is growing. The size of the basket that shoppers are spending with us is growing quite dramatically.
“I’m seeing shoppers shop around a lot more particularly than what they were doing during the pandemic. There are locations that are coming back to life again, I think shoppers are definitely on the hunt for value now.”
Inflation concerns
The Poundland boss also expressed his concern about the impact of inflation on the business. Williams said: “The cost of transportation and fuel, the cost of containers – that is double digit percentage inflation that we’re seeing right now. And if you think of wage inflation for our colleagues, which we’re supportive of, that is high single per cent inflation as well. I’ve got suppliers approaching us, and they all want cost increases.”
He added: “I’m not a magician, I’m not Paul Daniels. I can’t magic all of this stuff away.
“What I can do is work as hard as I can on behalf of shoppers, to make sure that we mitigate as much as we can to protect them. Our view is really clear – that people who work the hardest on behalf of shoppers are the ones who are going to win. The ones who just pass that on to the shoppers – well, shoppers are king, they can go wherever they want.”
