Only one bidder, Martin Property Group, a Northern Irish family-owned company, was interested in buying the entire chain and working with the existing management, led by Barry Williams, the chief executive.<\/p>\n
Gordon Brothers is understood to believe that it can raise more from a breakup of Poundland than through the Martin offer, which was worth less than the \u00a330m in debts that Gordon Brothers took on when it bought the chain.<\/p>\n
The threat of administration leaves thousands of shop workers facing uncertainty in the run-up to Christmas. Rival cut-price retailers, including Poundstretcher, The Range and B&M, have reportedly expressed an interest in taking on some Poundland stores.<\/p>\n
Bally Auluk, national officer of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, said: \u201cIt has been an incredibly distressing week for Poundland staff who have had to watch from the sidelines as a multibillion-pound company jeopardises their livelihoods as it tries to extract \u00a330m from a business it bought for \u00a31.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are urging Gordon Brothers to reconsider and to prioritise a unified buyer who will protect the livelihoods of [more than] 11,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams wrote to workers this week saying the rejection of the bid from Martin Property Group was \u201cunexpected, unwanted and wholly avoidable\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added on Thursday: \u201cWe recognise any sale process creates uncertainty and particularly when set against a challenging UK economic environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams said the notice of the intention to appoint administrators had been filed \u201cin order to bring stability\u201d as \u201cdespite enormous efforts it has not been possible to identify an acceptable offer for the business as a whole\u201d. Poundland would be \u201cworking closely with our advisors to identify and deliver the best possible outcome\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gordon Brothers hired the advisory company Alvarez & Marsal in August to oversee a sale of the business at a reported price of \u00a330m, fuelling fears of a breakup, despite improved trading.<\/p>\n
Poundland, founded with one store in Burton upon Trent in 1990, was the first UK-wide chain based on a single price. However, it now offers a broader range of price points and goods in a similar way to its rival Poundstretcher, which was founded in 1981.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Rising costs and heavy competition from chains such as Savers, Home Bargains and B&M, as well as from the major supermarkets, have meant pound shop chains have been gradually disappearing.<\/p>\n Poundworld closed its 350 stores in 2018<\/a>, and Poundland bought its rival 99p Stores<\/a> in 2015. Poundland then closed about 200<\/a> of its then 800 UK stores in a restructuring last year.<\/p>\n In 2020, Poundstretcher was due to close about half its then 270 stores in a rescue restructure<\/a> but it now has more than 300 outlets after being bought by Majestic Wine\u2019s owner, Fortress<\/a>, in 2024.<\/p>\n Williams said the latest sale process for Poundland had attracted offers from several established retailers \u201cwhich collectively cover a significant part of the business\u201d and that \u201coffer the best available prospects for shareholders, creditors and to preserve jobs\u201d.<\/p>\n Five initially interested parties include the US company Fortress, which is thought to want to take fewer than half of Poundland\u2019s stores to add to its existing chain.<\/p>\n CDS, owner of The Range, and B&M are understood to be considering a bid for at least some stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The shop workers\u2019 union Usdaw has urged Poundland\u2019s owners to reconsider a decision to prepare the budget chain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-817755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793292974_207_500.jpg\")
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