No Stopping Powerful Poundland

It seems to be good news all round for Poundland in the UK at the moment, with share prices, profits…

It seems to be good news all round for Poundland in the UK at the moment, with share prices, profits and sales increasing, not to mention their new store openings.

Poundland floated on the stock market in March with a value of £750 million. The initial float price of the shares was 300p, which has been steadily on the rise. After a recent 4 per cent jump in price, as a result of an 18 per cent sales increase to £262.6 million for the first quarter, the shares are now up to over 340p.

There has also been a 23.5 per cent rise in pre-tax profits for the year end in March to £36.8 million. Turnover for the group reached £997.8 million for the year, which is up 13.3 per cent on the previous year. The growth can mostly be attributed to the huge number of store openings that took place last year.

This is extremely good news for Poundland and coincides with their expansion into the rest of Europe. The first store outside the UK and Ireland has just opened in Torremolinos in Spain, under their Dealz brand, and they plan to open 10 stores across Spain in the medium term.

They also aim to open 60 new stores this year in the UK and Ireland and have a long term target of 1,000 stores in the the UK and 70 stores in Ireland, were they operate under the Dealz brand.

In addition, they have plans to open a new distribution centre in Harlow, England in August, with the company's overall capital investment next year set to reach £20 million.

Jim McCarthy CEO of Poundland, and former Sainsbury's executive, was the driving force behind the launch of the Dealz brand in Ireland, which he is now exporting to Spain. Given his stake in the company and the latest encouraging figures, it looks like he is justifiably in line for a big pay day.