Poundland has begun recruiting for around 120 new roles at its Barnsley chilled and frozen food hub in Darton, South Yorkshire. The site, which was acquired when Poundland bought Fultons Frozen Food to support the rollout of its chilled and frozen food offer, has now been chosen to host the retailer’s second digital distribution centre.
In the coming months, Poundland intends to increase the number of roles at Darton from 77 today to almost 200 by December as the centre becomes a second hub for its growing online business.
Poundland’s digital business has been growing rapidly after last year’s acquisition of Poundshop.com and its fulfilment operations centre in Wednesbury, West Midlands.
Poundshop.com has seen orders more than double under Poundland’s ownership, which means its operations are running close to full capacity. The retailer stated that adding Darton as its second online fulfilment centre will enable it to expand its digital business “at pace”.
Once established, the company intends to combine its Poundshop.com and Poundland.co.uk websites later this summer, allowing customers to shop an expanded range online for delivery.
Poundland director of digital Tom Hill commented: “Since bringing Fultons into our family as we’ve built our food offer, we’ve made Darton a true centre of excellence in the buying and distribution of chilled and frozen ranges for a rapidly growing number of stores.
“We now look forward to building a team at Darton that can help us also expand our digital business as we offer our customers more ways to shop at Poundland.”
Last week, Poundland revealed that it was accelerating the rollout of its grocery offering, which includes chilled, frozen, and fruit & veg lines, as well as beers, wines and spirits. The discounter has been adding whole new categories in a bid to offer consumers an alternative to traditional supermarkets.
Poundland is on track to add over half a million square feet of new space this financial year as it opens and relocates stores. It has already opened and relocated 33 stores and expects to have opened around 50 by the end of September.
NAM Implications:
- Poundland is obviously on a roll…
- …on & offline.
- A pity to miss the relatively easy move of jumping aboard sooner rather than later.
