Pepco Group has reported a difficult buying and selling setting at Poundland through the first quarter ending 31 December 2024, impacted by a weak clothes and basic merchandise efficiency and hard market circumstances.
The corporate delivered revenues of £1.6 billion (€1.9 billion), down 1.1% on a like-for-like foundation, with a constructive efficiency at Pepco and Dealz offset by continued challenges at Poundland.
Poundland like-for-like revenues declined 7.3%, largely pushed by continued weak clothes and basic merchandise efficiency, alongside beforehand flagged difficult market circumstances.
The worth retailer additionally reported a web closure of 11 Poundland shops, primarily reflecting lease expirations on bigger shops. It won’t open any web new shops through the remaining quarters.
Trying forward, Pepco Group stated it expects to ship worthwhile progress through the yr, pushed by additional operational enhancements and enhancement of its core buyer proposition.
Nevertheless, the corporate famous continued challenges for Poundland, as beforehand described, amid a tougher gross sales setting and client backdrop within the UK, alongside margin stress and an more and more greater working price setting.
It’s persevering with a “complete evaluation” of Poundland to get better buying and selling and get the enterprise again to its core strengths, together with a radical evaluation of all prices throughout the enterprise, in addition to evaluating its total aggressive positioning.
Stephan Borchert, CEO at Pepco Group, stated: “The group delivered a combined efficiency in its first quarter, with a robust efficiency from each the Pepco and Dealz manufacturers, partially offset by Poundland’s ongoing challenges.
“Getting Poundland again on monitor is a key precedence – we’re enterprise a complete evaluation of the enterprise and taking instant measures on enhancing our money efficiency and strengthening the client proposition.”
The buying and selling replace comes as Poundland invests more cash than ever into new safety measures to deal with retail crime after shedding greater than £40 million price of inventory final yr.
The worth retailer, which sells a big proportion of its merchandise for £1 or much less, stated it had been a specific goal of theft and abuse.
