Melton's new Poundland store set to open

There was sadness in the town when the hardware store ended trading in Nottingham Street after being a popular shopping haunt for locals for 60 years.

The company was unable to find a buyer after going into administration but discount retailer Poundland announced it was buying up dozens of Wilko stores and converting them into their own outlets, with 10 opening on Saturday.

One of them is the Melton Mowbray branch and work has moved swiftly in the last couple of weeks to prepare its opening this weekend with some Wilko staff set to return to the new store.

A Poundland spokesman told the Melton Times: “The number of former Wilko colleagues we’ve made offers to changes upwards daily – in total over 200 have been made and as of Tuesday this week that included 10 in Melton Mowbray.

“We continue to encourage former Wilko colleagues to follow Poundland’s LinkedIn page for updates and visit poundlandcareers.com to apply for roles where they’ll be given priority.”

Poundland says the Melton store will stock ‘extensive grocery, household and general merchandise ranges Poundland is famous for’.

It will also have the same Pepco family clothing that is now also rolling out to 500-plus of the brand’s existing UK and Ireland stores.

The extended clothing range also features new licensed products, including Harry Potter, Gremlins, Tom & Jerry and the Moomins, alongside popular Disney, Warner and Star Wars ranges.

Poundland’s managing director, Austin Cooke, said: “Our people make Poundland special and last week they did an amazing job to turn ex-Wilko stores into brand new Poundlands in just six days – the size and scale of what they’ve achieved has been nothing short of phenomenal.

“But they worked hard because we meant what we said about moving quickly to create jobs for Wilko colleagues.

“And that’s why we’ll pull out all the stops to repeat that feat and open another 10 stores this weekend.”

He added: “I know from meeting our new colleagues from Wilko, how delighted they were to welcome customers old and new back to their store last weekend – and that’s inspiring us to keep the pace up and bring the amazing value we promise to more high streets this Saturday.

“And while it will take a little time to get the converted Wilkos quite as we’d like, by opening swiftly we’re protecting jobs, adding amazing value to the high street, and putting more stores and products closer to our customers when they need it most.

“That makes our mission to open them as speedily as we can, so important.”

Over the course of the just the last three weeks, Poundland has been prioritising former Wilko colleagues for roles in Poundland.

The company also has 1,200 temporary seasonal roles available across the country to help with the busy Christmas period.

Poundland intends to carry out a fuller makeover of converted Wilko stores in 2024.