Who are the private equity firms in the race to snap up Poundland?

Endless LLP

Endless has built a reputation for “doing quite well out of retail”, says a City source.

It acquired The Works out of administration in 2008 and floated it on the stock market for £100m 10 years later.

More recently, it bought American Golf from administrators in 2018, and “breathed new life into it”, growing sales and market share.

“They’ve come from a bottom-feeding turnaround environment, but in the last few years they’ve tried to follow some capital into a more mid-market environment,” says the source.

“They’re buying the unloved. Gary [Wilson, Endless joint-chair], talks about the ignored, the underinvested .”

That applies also to the supplier side. Endless has owned Hovis since 2020, and cake manufacturer Bright Blue Food since 2015 and is in talks with ABF over a potential deal over its Allied Bakeries division.

After acquiring Yorkshire Premier Meat in 2022 and combining it with Smithfield Murray to create Karnova Food Group in 2023, it grew sales from £115m to £135m before selling it to US meat giant OSI in February this year.

Hilco

In contrast, Hilco is a “retail specialist”, says the source.

Recent deals include funding a management buyout of family-owned homeware retailer Lakeland in April.

As a lender, it has provided a lifeline to the distressed, including Wilko, which it loaned £40m in January 2023, before becoming a creditor in the administration process seven months later, while also liquidating stock for PwC. It has also backed HMV and Superdry.

It will likely shed underperforming Poundland stores through a CVA, as will Endless.

“Neither will be afraid of doing that because they are all from insolvency practitioner backgrounds,” says the source.

The two could represent ­differing fates for Poundland management, though.

“Endless tend to back the management team; Hilco pretty much put their own team in. Hilco has a really good network of execution directors who can go in and effect change.”

Both will be “very focused on optimising cost base and working capital” to “generate some free cashflow to start investing in a growth strategy”.

Modella

London-based Modella was founded in 2022 and has risen to prominence with a flurry of high-profile investments in a matter of months.

It acquired WH Smith’s high street stores in March, in a £76m deal that rebranded the shops as TG Jones.

It is also no stranger to a CVA. It bought arts & craft retailer Hobbycraft in August last year, followed by variety discounter The Original Factory Shop in February, and has recently launched CVAs at both.

Sky News reports it is effectively banned from ­launching a CVA with former WH Smith stores for at least a year, under the terms of the deal.

Its chair, Steve Curtis, has over 40 years’ retail sector experience as an operator, turnaround professional and investor, according to Modella.

Gordon Brothers

Reported by The Times to be the frontrunner in bidding, Gordon Brothers is a US-based advisory, restructuring and investment firm that was founded in 1903.

It bought the Laura Ashley brand from insolvency in 2000, and turned it into an ‘asset-light’ model with a homeware range online and in Next stores. The homeware and fashion brand expanded with further partnerships in Korea, Japan and the U.S, and later in Europe, Australia, the Middle East and China.

By the time it was sold in 2025 to New York-based Marquee Brands, Laura Ashley had grown to over $750 million in global retail sales and expanded into over 80 countries across six continents, according to Gordon Brothers’ website.

Alteri Investors

Restructuring firm Alteri reportedly made it to a two-horse race with Modella in the bidding to buy WH Smith’s high street stores, before the latter secured deal.

Launched in 2014, London-based Alteri is a specialist investor focused on European retailers, including Bensons for Beds, which it bought in a pre-pack administration deal in 2020. Bensons for Beds bounced back to annual EBITDA profit of £1.5m in 2023, from losses of £15.4m the previous year. Sales were up 7.5% to £257.5m, credited to ongoing investment in improving the product offer and customer experience.

Improving product offer and customer experience will need to be a focus for Poundland’s new owner too. Pepco Group’s decision to sell the retailer, which it announced in March, followed a disastrous transition to sourcing Poundland clothing and GM at group level, which left gaps in crucial ranges such as DIY.

Along with cost optimisation, getting the range right again will be paramount, says GlobalData retail analyst Sophie Mitchell. It needs to “improve its offer, customer appeal and pricing of its core fmcg category”.

With bids expected to be made on Tuesday, may the right suitor win.