BYE BYE
Poundland to shut another store amid wave of closures – see the full list of locations
Find out what other stores have been hit
POUNDLAND has confirmed the exact date it will shut another of its stores for good.
This would make it the third shop scheduled to close in coming weeks , with seven other branches having already shut down.
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The Chiswick High Road store will close for good on Wednesday, May 28, after months of speculation from locals and retail insiders.
Signs announcing the closure have now appeared in the shop’s windows, and staff had already been quietly informing customers last week.
The store's departure from the west London high street follows rumours that the neighbouring Marks & Spencer has plans to expand into the vacated space.
M&S recently confirmed a major investment in its Chiswick store but has so far refused to confirm whether the now-empty units on either side form part of its wider development plans.
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Poundland have confirmed the closure is due to a failure to "agree terms that would allow us to keep trading".
A spokesperson said: "We operate from over 800 locations across the UK and Ireland and with so many locations, we constantly review our store portfolio as leases expire or come up for renewal.
"We’d like to thank customers in Chiswick and look forward to welcoming them to our nearest store in Acton."
Locals have taken to social media to share their disappointment with the latest closure.
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One shopper said: "This is so sad, I can't believe we're losing another store".
Another added: "That’s a shame it’s closing. The staff are lovely."
Whilst a third shared their concern of losing yet another high street name, writing: "We will end up with no shops. At all they are killing of pensioners as well ghost towns we will have all over."
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Others were confused by the decision writing: "I don't understand, it was so popular, what a shame."
Poundland’s exit from Chiswick comes as part of a wider wave of closures sweeping the UK.
Just last week, stores in Gravesend’s St George’s Centre, Clapham Junction station in London, and Liverpool’s Belle Vale Shopping Centre all pulled down their shutters for the final time.
Later this month, the Brackla store in Wales will also vanish from the high street, with its final trading day set for May 24.
Other towns and cities have already been hit in recent months.
In March, the Connswater Shopping Centre branch in Belfast was forced to shut after the centre entered receivership.
Back in October, Maidenhead and Sutton Coldfield lost their local stores, while Macclesfield's branch closed last August.
Full list of confirmed Poundland closures:
- Chiswick High Road – closing May 28
- St George’s Centre, Gravesend – closed last week
- Clapham Junction Station, London – closed May 2
- Belle Vale Shopping Centre, Liverpool – closed May 6
- Brackla, Wales – closing May 24
- Connswater Shopping Centre, Belfast – closed end of March
- Maidenhead – closed October 2024
- Sutton Coldfield – closed early October 2024
- Macclesfield – closed August 2024
Retail analysts say store closures aren’t always a sign of a retailer collapsing, they can sometimes indicate a strategic shift, such as moving to higher-footfall areas or investing in online shopping.
But in Poundland’s case, the wave of closures is closely tied to the deeper financial troubles facing its owner.
Pepco Group, a Poland-based retail giant that operates over 800 Poundland stores across the UK and Ireland, has been grappling with serious challenges.
The company made a staggering £642million write-down on its investment last December after Poundland reported a 3.6% drop in like-for-like sales and a 21.5% fall in underlying earnings for the year to September 2024.
The situation has since worsened, with like-for-like sales plunging 7.3% in the first quarter of 2025 and revenue down 9.3% in the final three months of last year.
Pepco is also facing rising operational costs.
Increases in the national minimum wage and employers’ National Insurance contributions have hit the retailer’s margins hard.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ tax changes have also contributed to the squeeze.
In March, Pepco enlisted advisory firm Teneo to explore a possible sale of the Poundland business, raising further questions about the long-term fate of the chain on UK shores.
This decision follows Pepco's announcement that it is exploring "all strategic options" to separate Poundland from its portfolio of brands.
The £641million profit loss revealed last year was described by Pepco as a “non-cash impairment,” meaning the group has had to lower the estimated value of Poundland—largely due to reduced expectations of future earnings since acquiring the chain in 2016.
Despite this, Poundland insists it remains committed to its UK customer base, pointing to the hundreds of stores still in operation across the country.
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But for residents in Chiswick, the departure of the local branch will leave a noticeable gap on the high streetand serve as another reminder of how Britain’s shopping landscape is changing fast.
Further closures could be on the horizon as Pepco reviews its UK operations, with retail watchers keeping a close eye on which stores may be next.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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