Poundland moves into fresh food

Poundland is selling more fresh food in a bid to attract cash-strapped shoppers to do a weekly shop with the budget chain.

It's opening its biggest ever store in Nottingham today which will have shelves of fruit, vegetables and bread.

Poundland has been trialling fresh food in a handful of convenience stores but it's the first time the retailer has stocked these items in a main store.

It plans to add the new ranges to more than 20 other large stores this year.

It's already begun rolling out chilled and frozen food and aims to have that stocked in 350 stores by the autumn.

"It's a natural extension of what our customers are looking for," says the managing director of Poundland, Barry Williams.

His latest shop, on a retail park on the outskirts of Nottingham, is twice the typical size of a regular Poundland.

It feels like a supermarket with trolleys and belted checkouts, as well as beer, wine and spirits.

Although grocery sales soared during the pandemic, the going hasn't been easy for discount chains as shoppers returned to the big weekly shop - and did it online.

But the boss of Poundland says the discounters are starting to grow again.

"Our business is growing. The size of the basket that shoppers are spending with us is growing quite dramatically."

"I'm seeing shoppers shop around a lot more particularly than what they were doing during the pandemic. There are locations that are coming back to life again, I think shoppers are definitely on the hunt for value now".

But, like every other retailer, Poundland is also grappling with rising costs.

"Inflation is hitting us right across the board," says Mr Williams.

"The cost of transportation and fuel, the cost of containers - that is double digit percentage inflation that we're seeing right now. And if you think of wage inflation for our colleagues, which we're supportive of, that is high single per cent inflation as well. I've got suppliers approaching us, and they all want cost increases".

The grocery aisles are fiercely competitive. But with shoppers perhaps more price-sensitive than they've ever been, retailers have to balance how much of their costs to pass on without losing customers to rivals.

The boss of Poundland says he's determined to keep his prices keen: "I'm not a magician, I'm not Paul Daniels. I can't magic all of this stuff away.

"What I can do is work as hard as I can on behalf of shoppers, to make sure that we mitigate as much as we can to protect them. Our view is really clear - that people who work the hardest on behalf of shoppers are the ones who are going to win. The ones who just pass that on to the shoppers. Well, shoppers are king, they can go wherever they want."