Fultons Foods closing: Poundland confirms closure of remaining stores including in Shirebrook

The budget retailer, which acquired the frozen food specialist in October 2020, said it had converted 11 Fultons stores to either Poundland or PEP&CO clothing and homeware shops, but all those which have yet to be rebranded are set to close – spelling the end for its store on Victoria Road, Shirebrook.

A Poundland spokesman said: “We announced to colleagues last month that Fultons stores that hadn’t already been converted to a Poundland format would sadly close.

“There are eight colleagues who work at Shirebrook, but we’ll do all we can to find the team there opportunities to transfer to a Poundland store, or other openings elsewhere in our business.

“Just by way of a bit of context, over the past 18 months, we’ve opened chilled and frozen departments in morethan 250 Poundland stores and will open another 100 this year.

“By the end of September 2022, we expect that Fultons, the frozen food specialist we acquired in October 2020, will be powering the chilled and frozen offer in more than 350 Poundland stores – and we aspire to have more than 500 in time.

Why are Fultons Foods stores closing?

“Over the course of the last year, 11 Fultons locations have also been given a new lease of life as either a Poundland or PEP&CO store.

“Having reached this scale at pace, we’ve now carried out a detailed review of the remaning 42 Fultons branded stores, of which Shirebrook is one.

“Sadly, we see no prospect of being able to convert it to a Poundland format in the near-term, or that it will be able to continue to trade profitably as a standalone Fultons store and that’s why we shared with the colleagues in there last month that it will sadly close in the next few months.

“While Poundland is a growing business – the programme to bring frozen food to hundreds of Poundland stores and establish specialist frozen distribution capability in Barnsley and Harlow is creating about 1,000 jobs - we understand how disappointing this decision will be for the Fultons colleagues in this specific store.

“However when chilled and frozen from Fultons is introduced into a Poundland store – and there’ll be another 100 between now and September – that allows us to create some roles.”

Although the final date for the Shirebrook store closure has not yet been announced, it is expected to shut before Easter.

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