A MAJOR discount chain with 825 stores will shut a shopping centre site for good, with a 50 per cent closing down sale launched.
Poundland is preparing to close it's branch in the St George’s Centre in Gravesend, Kent, in the latest blow to high street shoppers.
Various signs have been seen in the windows of the branch declaring a "closing down sale" and that items have had their prices slashed in half.
The official closing date for the branch has not yet been confirmed, according to reports.
And it's not the only store Poundland intends to close soon.
Pepco, the group's parent company, confirmed to The Sun earlier this month it would also close a branch in Liverpool on May 6.
The chain is preparing to shut its branch in the Belle Valle shopping centre.
A spokesperson said the decision came after it was served notice on the lease.
They added: "We know how disappointing this will be to customers and colleagues.
"Whenever we have to close a store in these circumstances, we do all we can to look for other opportunities for colleagues and that work is now underway."
Just last month, it was forced to close a branch in Belfast after the Connswater Shopping Centre was put into receivership.
The shop closed at the end of March, with a major clothing down sale launched.
In October, Maidenhead residents were also left heartbroken following the closure of a Poundland branch.
This was on top of closures in in Sutton Coldfield on October 5 and the closure of its Macclesfield site last August after it was unable to secure a new lease agreement.
Last month, its parent company Pepco is said to have hired advisory firm Teneo to oversee the sale of the UK business.
It comes after Pepco said it was looking at "all strategic options" to separate Poundland from its brand.
The Polish group said it might turn its focus to its more profitable businesses in Europe.
Pepco previously warned that upcoming hikes to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and national minimum wage would significantly add to its costs.
Late last year, it was revealed that profits at Poundland also tumbled by £641million in the year to September, with bosses again blaming slow sales amid a poor outlook thanks to measures set out by Reeves
A spokesperson also said the huge loss was "due to a non-cash impairment at Poundland that relates to the acquisition of the UK chain in 2016".
This means the value of the business has decreased because of an expectation that future cash flows will fall.
More recently, Poundland also saw revenue fall by 9.3% for the three months to December.
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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