The shop workers’ union Usdaw has urged Poundland’s owners to reconsider a decision to prepare the budget chain for administration, putting up to 12,000 jobs at risk.
Gordon Brothers filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators to Poundland at the high court on Thursday, with the advisory firm AlixPartners lined up to run the process.
The legal measure protects Poundland from the demands of creditors for 10 days while a solution to its problems is sought.
Gordon Brothers previously rejected a management-backed rescue bid for the discount chain, which operates 600 stores, including Dealz outlets in Ireland. It bought the struggling chain for a nominal £1 from its previous owner, the European retail group Pepco, in June 2025.
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.
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 £30m in debts that Gordon Brothers took on when it bought the chain.
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.
Bally Auluk, national officer of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, said: “It 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 £30m from a business it bought for £1.
“We are urging Gordon Brothers to reconsider and to prioritise a unified buyer who will protect the livelihoods of [more than] 11,000 people.”
Williams wrote to workers this week saying the rejection of the bid from Martin Property Group was “unexpected, unwanted and wholly avoidable”.
The board of Poundland said on Thursday: “We recognise any sale process creates uncertainty and particularly when set against a challenging UK economic environment.”
The board said the notice of the intention to appoint administrators had been filed “in order to bring stability” as “despite enormous efforts it has not been possible to identify an acceptable offer for the business as a whole”. Poundland would be “working closely with our advisors to identify and deliver the best possible outcome”.
Gordon Brothers hired the advisory company Alvarez & Marsal in August to oversee a sale of the business at a reported price of £30m, fuelling fears of a breakup, despite improved trading.
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.
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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.
Poundworld closed its 350 stores in 2018, and Poundland bought its rival 99p Stores in 2015. Poundland then closed about 200 of its then 800 UK stores in a restructuring last year.
In 2020, Poundstretcher was due to close about half its then 270 stores in a rescue restructure but it now has more than 300 outlets after being bought by Majestic Wine’s owner, Fortress, in 2024.
The board of Poundland said the latest sale process for Poundland had attracted offers from several established retailers “which collectively cover a significant part of the business” and that “offer the best available prospects for shareholders, creditors and to preserve jobs”.
Five initially interested parties include the US company Fortress, which is thought to want to take fewer than half of Poundland’s stores to add to its existing chain.
CDS, owner of The Range, and B&M are understood to be considering a bid for at least some stores.
