POUNDLAND will have shut six locations by the end of the month - and hundreds more are at risk of closure.
The bargain retailer has pulled the plug on five stores in the last couple of weeks.
This comes after a further 200 loss-making stores were identified as possible closures.
“As announced at the capital markets day on March 6, Pepco Group is moving away from fast-moving consumer goods to create a simpler business focused on higher-margin clothing and general merchandise and is actively exploring separation options for Poundland, including a potential sale, from the group,” a spokesperson for Poundland's parent company Pepco Group said.
You can see the full list of closures this month below:
In March, Poundland was forced to shut its Belfast branch after the Connswater Shopping Centre was placed into receivership.
The store closed its doors at the end of March, following a major closing-down sale.
Back in October, residents of Maidenhead were similarly dismayed when their local Poundland branch closed.
This came in addition to other closures, including its Sutton Coldfield store on October 5 and the Macclesfield branch last August, the latter closing due to the inability to secure a new lease agreement.
It follows reports that up to 200 stores could close as part of a rescue deal of the brand.
Gordon Brothers, the ex-owner of Laura Ashley, has become the frontrunner to takeover the bargain chain, which recently announced a wave of store closures across the UK.
Turnaround Investors were linked with a bid for Poundland.
These firms specialise in buying up struggling businesses in the hopes of turning them around.
Bidding for the business was expected to start this Tuesday.
A source told The Sunday Times that Poundland would be priced at "effectively a pound."
Several interested parties are reportedly looking at bidding on the UK budget retailer.
Further store closures and job losses would come as a blow to the high street.
Polish retail giant Pepco said it expects the sale of Poundland to complete by September.
Last month, the parent firm is said have hired advisory firm Teneo to oversee the sale of the UK business.
Poundland revenues dropped by 6.5% to 985 million euros (£830 million) for the six months to March, compared with a year earlier.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
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."
Professor Bamfield has also 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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