99p Stores will receive £25m funding from Barclays Bank as it looks to accelerate new store openings next year.
The single-price retailer said the investment will allow it to open 70 new stores by the end of 2015 taking its total estate to 310 stores.
“There is still a substantial opportunity to grow much further,” said Nadir Lalani, chief executive of 99p Stores. “This package of growth finance from Barclays will allow us to move quickly to the next stage of growth through an accelerated new store opening programme giving more consumers in more locations access to our proposition of quality goods for under a pound.”
Glen McDonald, relationship director at Barclays Northampton & Milton Keynes, added: “99p Stores and Family Bargains is a fantastic success story in what is a very challenging environment for retailers. The extended banking facility will allow the company to commence its plan of opening a further 70 new stores by the end of 2015 and create local employment.”
Founded by Nadir Lalani in January 2001, 99p Stores now has 240 stores nationwide, including 30 Family Bargains outlets, and could be set to become the first single price discounter to launch a transactional website. The website, which is expected to launch next year, will work by limiting orders to 20 items with free delivery, according to MD Faisal Lalani.
Rival Poundland has long talked up the launch of its own transactional website, but a launch window still isn’t clear. “Developing a transactional website remains a big opportunity and a priority, and we’re continuing to look at it in some detail, but we don’t have a firm launch date,” a Poundland spokeswoman recently told The Grocer.
This is in contrast to comments made by Poundland CEO Jim McCarthy last year, who pledged a launch window within “the first six months of 2013”.
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