Discount chain to open 50 stores, expecting to create 2,000 jobs

POUNDLAND, the discount retail chain, is planning to open more than 50 stores this year in a move that is expected to create as many as 2,000 jobs.

About 20 of the new sites are likely to be in Northern Ireland, according to the firm's chief executive, Jim McCarthy. The expansion comes ahead of a possible stock market flotation.

McCarthy said the current high street slowdown and demise of Woolworths had helped free up more than 650 suitable sites for the store group in the UK.

Poundland, which was founded in 1990 and sells everything in its shops for 1, currently runs about 250 outlets, 46 of which were opened in the last financial year, many on former Woolworth's sites. The group is among several names in the retail sector mooted to float this year.

McCarthy said the chain tended to perform "robustly" in a recession. Its most recent set of accounts show that the company increased its operating profits by 47 per cent to 11.8 million in the year to 29 March, 2009.

Poundland, which has been owned by private equity firm Advent International since 2002, did not disclose how many of the new stores are likely be located in Scotland, where it already operates about 30 branches.