The battle to become ‘the new Woolworths’ is hotting up.

The battle to become ‘the new Woolworths’ is hotting up.

Ever since the variety store group’s demise almost two years ago, value specialists have been staging a land grab, racing for space to fill the void left in so many town centres.

This week’s completion of the £48m acquisition by B&M Bargains of Opus Homewares was the latest instance of the fight being waged for market share. It is also a reminder that the battle, which has in the main been restricted to the high street, is moving out of town.

B&M flagged Opus’s retail park presence as one of its attractions and the deal’s completion follows rival 99p Stores’ decision to launch a sister fascia, Family Bargains, on retail parks.

B&M and 99p Stores are just two of a host of fast-expanding variety groups, along with Wilkinson, Poundland, Home Bargains and Alworths. At some point consolidation - and perhaps a flotation - must be on the cards.

99p Stores looks likely to play a role in consolidation. The controlling Lalani family have a history of building, then selling, their businesses. That was the pattern with convenience chain Europa, sold to Tesco, and travel chain Whistlestop, sold to Compass.

The most likely eventual flotation candidate must be Poundland, run by Jim McCarthy, who has a wealth of experience at public companies. But the retailer changed hands among private equity firms earlier this year so no move to public markets looks imminent.

That probably means a few more years of jostling between the would-be heirs to Woolworths before public company investors have a chance to buy in and much may change in the meantime.

It is not impossible that a quoted company may swoop on one of the value groups, all of which must also show they can continue to grow while the other inheritor of Woolworths’ mantle - Tesco, with its mammoth general merchandise offer and out-of-town presence - steamrolls on.