Value retailer Poundstretcher has acquired 15 of the 17 Alworths stores following the collapse of the ‘son of Woolies’ variety retailer, Retail Week can reveal.

The deal saves the majority of the 235 jobs jeopardised or lost as a result of Alworths’ demise at the end of March.

All stores will be rebranded Poundstretcher, with Newark and Didcot being rebranded in the “next couple of days”, Poundstretcher boss Charles Kay told Retail Week.

Administrator Leonard Curtis said it has sold the “entire business to Poundstretcher”, although it is unclear if the intellectual property has been bought along with the stores.

Leonard Curtis administrator Neil Bennett said: “We are delighted to announce that we have completed the sale of the Alworths business.

“We successfully traded the stores for five weeks and had a lot of interest in the business from the start, resulting in the sale to Poundstretcher.  

“We are delighted that the majority of the 235 jobs across the whole company have been saved and 15 of the stores have joined the Poundstretcher chain.

“This is a particularly good result: for us, for the employees of the business, the creditors of the Alworths company, and for the British high street. We wish the staff and the customers of all these stores the very best.”   

Poundstretcher has acquired stores in:

  • Alloa, Clackmannanshire
  • Bellshill, Glasgow
  • Cosham, Hampshire
  • Cupar, Fife
  • Didcot, Oxfordshire
  • Forfar, Angus
  • Hertford, Hertfordshire
  • Maidenhead, Berkshire
  • Newark, Nottinghamshire
  • Newhaven, East Sussex
  • New Milton, Hampshire
  • Swadlincote, Derbyshire
  • Tiverton, Devon
  • Warminster, Wiltshire
  • Wokingham, Berkshire