Poundland has closed all Fultons Foods stores, having rolled the business’ frozen & chilled food range into hundreds of its own branches.
Fultons had about 80 stores in the north of England when Poundland bought the frozen food chain in 2020, with the intention of using its Barnsley depot to roll out the range to hundreds of its own stores. Fultons had already been supplying a pilot frozen food offering to a handful of Poundland stores for a number of months.
As for Fultons’ stores, the variety discounter said at the time that some would be converted to Poundlands, some would be closed and those that remained viable would continue trading.
The last 59 closed in the year to 30 September 2022, a trading update from Poundland parent Pepco Group has revealed.
About 10 of the 80 Fultons branches were converted to Poundlands, including some to the retailer’s convenience format, Poundland Local.
The Barnsley depot continues to serve as a national chilled & frozen distribution centre for Poundland, supplementing the regional capacity of its Harlow warehouse.
Poundland’s frozen & chilled rollout, dubbed ‘Project Diamond’, has now reached about 350 of its stores and it plans bring it to another 275-300 by autumn 2023, taking it virtually across the whole UK estate. It is part of a strategy to offer a more viable alternative to supermarkets for the grocery shop.
The trading update, announced yesterday, also revealed a shake-up ahead for Poundland’s clothing and general merchandise buying team, thanks to a new arrangement that will see the ranges sourced at group level.
All Poundland’s clothing from the autumn/winter 2023 range on is to be sourced from Pepco and the same is to apply for GM from spring/summer 2024, in a bid to better leverage the business’s scale. Branding of the ranges will also change, from Pep&Co to Pepco.
A Poundland spokesman said a significant proportion of the range was already sourced at group level, but the transition would nevertheless mean “changes for our clothing and general merchandise buying teams” in the UK.
“It goes without saying we’ll be looking after them over the next two years as we implement this change,” he added.
Elsewhere, the results said a labour efficiency programme had delivered an 8% reduction in staff hours required at store level.
Revenues of Poundland Group – which includes stores under its sister brand Dealz in Spain, Poland and the Republic of Ireland – were up 7.8% year on year to €2.1bn, while like-for-like sales were up 2.6%, according to the full-year trading update. “This illustrates the benefits driven by the continued strengthening of our customer proposition through the ‘Diamond’ refit programme,” the update said.
No comments yet