Poundland has axed more than 100 roles across its head office in Walsall as part of a company-wide restructure, Retail Week can reveal.
The value retailer is set to conclude its two-month long consultation later this week, with staff impacted across its digital and stores teams as well as within its frozen and chilled food teams.
The cuts are thought to consist of around 75 compulsory and 29 voluntary redundancies – equating to more than a fifth of its 500-people workforce based out of Walsall.
It follows Poundland’s announcement in June, when it unveiled plans to slim down its grocery offer and simplify its digital presence as part of a mass overhaul of the business.
The retailer said it would withdraw from the retail sale of frozen food and reduce its chilled food offer. It also converted its online presence from a transactional website to a brand website.
Poundland received the green light late last month on its plans to right-size its store estate, which has seen the business shutter around 57 of its stores across the UK.
A Poundland spokesperson told Retail Week: “We’ve made no secret of the fact we need to create a simpler and more focused business to get us back on track after a significant period of underperformance.
“Alongside a reduced number of stores, the withdrawal from categories such as frozen food and the retirement of our transactional website and rewards app at the beginning of August, we also proposed the removal of central roles at our Walsall Customer Service Centre (CSC) and the closures of our Darton and Springvale DCs to help us create a sustainable platform for the future.
“This has involved placing a number of roles at risk of redundancy based at, or out of, the CSC in Walsall and at both Darton and Springvale distribution centres. It goes without saying that we have consulted formally with individuals affected by these announcements and that work is now almost complete.
“It’s sincerely regrettable that our plan to restore the business to health involves any potential job losses, but it’s necessary if we’re to achieve our goal of securing the future of thousands of jobs and hundreds of stores in the long-term.”
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