Poundworld to open at Woolies site

THE former Woolworths store in Nottingham's Victoria Centre will reopen as a Poundworld.

The discount retailer has agreed terms for the 12,500 sq ft premises which will reopen on August 19 creating up to 30 new jobs.

It will be Poundworld's largest UK store, said operations director, Martin Ward.

The premises are currently being fitted out.

The Yorks-based business started out as a partnership between brothers Chris and Laurie Edwards in 1974 trading as Bargain Centre discount stores.

It later changed its name across 25 stores to Everything £1 in the mid 1990s.

The stores were rebranded at the end of 2003 as Poundworld.

Mr Ward said: "Our rapid expansion has seen us grow to 75 stores with a further seven stores planned to open before Christmas.

It plans to open a further 15 to 20 stores a year for the next five years, effectively doubling the size of the business.

The expansion will create an additional 1,500 new jobs.

Turnover for the year ending March 2009 was more than £75m.

Mr Ward said Poundworld should break the £100m barrier this financial year.

"We are constantly looking to improve our product range and have secured regular supply deals with many major branded suppliers," he said.

"We currently trade from a number of well known shopping centres including The Metro Centre, Gateshead, Manchester Arndale Centre and Merryhill Shopping Centre in Dudley.

Mr Ward added: "We have secured deals directly with the landlords to take former Woolworths stores in a number of locations one of which is the Victoria Shopping Centre.

"We believe that at 12,500 sq ft of shopping space this will be the largest £1 store in the UK.

"We have an existing store in Nottingham but are more than confident that the two shopping centres serve a different customer base.

"Nottingham is a very strong shoppers city with a large number of customers.

"The ongoing economic climate has seen a leap in the number of savvy shoppers who are actively seeking a bargain and want to make their hard earned money stretch that bit further.

"We can provide our customers with just that service where they can buy a major range of branded and own label products at a single price of just £1."