Discount chain Poundland is set to call in the administrators, placing 12,000 jobs at risk, after the US owners who bought the firm for £1 rejected a rescue deal.
The budget retailer filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators today after owners Gordon Brothers failed to reverse the retailer’s ailing fortunes.
If approved by the High Court, the notice will give Poundland 10 working days of breathing space to find a new buyer after an offer of a wholesale buyout backed by management was turned down.
The US investment firm’s rejection of a bid from Martin Property Group has outraged Poundland bosses, but Gordon Brothers is said to have insisted that any buyer pays off a £30m shareholder loan it inherited when it bought the chain.
Managing director Barry Williams has today suggested the chain could be broken up and sold off after receiving formal offers from ‘several established retail operators’ that cover a ‘significant part of the business’.
‘Despite enormous efforts, it has not been possible to identify an acceptable offer for the business as a whole,’ he said in a statement today.
‘The filing of the NOI (notice of intention) creates an immediate 10-working-day legal moratorium during which we will be working closely with our advisors to identify and deliver the best possible outcome.
‘Our stores remain open as normal and we thank our staff, suppliers and customers for their continued support.’
Three directors appointed just two weeks ago to oversee a potential sale quit in protest. Multiple reports suggest advisers from AlixPartners are on the verge of being appointed to guide the company through the administration process.
Poundland is on the verge of calling in the administrators after a rescue deal collapsed
Billionaire retail magnate Chris Dawson is amongst those said to be considering a rescue deal – having done the same with Wilko and Homebase in recent years
Dawson made his fortune after founding homeware chain The Range in Plymouth in 1989
Usdaw, the trade union representing shopworkers, has accused Gordon Brothers of being ‘determined to let the company fall into administration’.
With one of Britain’s biggest high street names on the verge of collapse in the run up to Christmas, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has written to the American investment firm seeking an explanation.
Poundland, which dropped its ‘where everything’s £1’ slogan in 2019 as economic factors made the promise unsustainable, operates 600 stores and two distribution centres, including one in Andy Burnham’s Makerfield constituency.
It closed between 150 and 200 stores and two warehouses in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands after the Gordon Brothers takeover last year – when the US investment firm ironically snapped it up for a nominal 1 euro or, near as makes no difference, £1.
The retail chain then reported a £85m pre-tax loss in the year to September 2025.
Gordon Brothers’s refusal to accept the preferred offer has sparked a civil war within the company – with Poundland upper management rounding on their Gordon Brothers paymasters.
Barry Williams, the company’s managing director, revealed to staff that Gordon Brothers had cut off the company’s access to cash for day-to-day operations.
In a memo to workers, he said the rejection of the Martin Property Group bid had been ‘unexpected, unwanted and wholly avoidable’.
He added: ‘As you all know, our sales are strong and our recovery is taking root. This business simply does not deserve to go into any kind of administration.’
Suppliers have threatened to cut Poundland off, Sky News reported, amid suggestions that they were not going to be paid this week.
A spokesman for Gordon Brothers previously said it had been approached with ‘a number of formal and indicative offers’ for ‘significant viable parts of the business’.
Without a deal on the table, the chain is hurtling towards insolvency, which could see it sold off piecemeal or folded into a pre-pack administration, which would see the firm sold to a new owner. Either could see more stores closed and jobs lost.
Other potential buyers are circling. Budget rivals Lidl, Iceland and B&M, TG Jones owner Modella and retail juggernaut Chris Dawson are said to be interested in a slice of the Poundland pie.
Dawson, who made his fortune founding The Range chain of homeware stores, has become a more recent saviour of ailing British brands, snapping up Wilko and chunks of Homebase as both faced total collapse and consignment to the history books.
The 74-year-old is known as the ‘Del Boy Billionaire’, having started out as a market trader in Plymouth, not unlike David Jason’s wheeler dealer in Only Fools and Horses.
But he has enjoyed markedly more success than his fictional counterpart – despite suffering from dyslexia. He cannot write, and only learned to read at the age of 27.
In the age of email, he prefers to do business direct, or over the phone.
The looming collapse of Poundland comes just three years after that of homeware chain Wilko – which was later resurrected by Dawson
Poundland dropped its ‘where everything’s £1’ slogan in 2019 as it expanded its range of products – but still maintains it is ‘home of the £1’
His approach has paid dividends: rather than a rusting Reliant Regal, Dawson drives around in a yellow Lamborghini Urus super-SUV with the personalised number plate DE11 BOY. The plate has also lived on a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley in the past.
Another plate, DAW50N, is currently attached to a bright orange Lamborghini Revuelto, while the billionaire is also known to have owned Range Rovers and a Ferrari 458 with a flashy paint job inspired by the Italian flag.
Dawson is also famed for flying around in a Range-branded helicopter in order to visit his stores personally.
He opened his first CDS Superstore – later renamed The Range – in Plymouth in 1989 and has openly likened his stores to ‘a poor man’s John Lewis’, once telling the Telegraph: ‘As each person comes in, I think: ‘Kerching, kerching, kerching!”
That hasn’t stopped it attracting well-heeled customers – The Duchess of Cambridge was seen doing last-minute Christmas shopping at the King’s Lynn branch near Norfolk in 2018.
In 2023, Dawson bought the rights to Wilko for £5million after the homeware chain collapsed, initially turning it into a web-only retailer before opening a handful of physical stores and 200 click-and-collect points across the country.
A year later he would do the same with Homebase, spending £30million on buying brand rights and 70 of its stores in a pre-pack deal. The brick-and-mortar shops were rebranded as The Range while the Homebase name has moved online.
He is thought to have saved millions of pounds in tax by handing control of his businesses to his wife Sarah, who resides in Jersey and is the controlling party of parent firm Norton Group Holdings.
According to The Sunday Times Rich List, the couple are worth a combined £2.65billion.
Poundland and Gordon Brothers were contacted for comment.
