POUNDLAND has confirmed the exact date of another high street store closure as it begins shuttering sites.
The is set to close four stores in May as its owner, Polish retailer Pepco Group, looks to offload the business.
The latest store to confirm a closure date is in St George's Centre.
The site will be shuttered for good on Thursday May 8.
The news of yet another in the Kent town has prompted dismay from locals.
One said: “What a dump Gravesend has become.”
Another added: “All the decent shops have gone.”
A third added: “The town has lost so many and market used to be bustling now dying bit by bit, be a ghost town.”
The shopping centre has already seen the closure of an andas well as gift shop Don't Panic.
A spokesperson for Poundland said: “It’s correct we’ve sadly decided to close our St George’s centre store on 8 May. Our Imperial retail park store is only around half a mile away and we look forward to continuing to welcome shoppers there.
“We operate from over 800 locations across the UK and Ireland and with so many outlets, it will be no surprise that we constantly review our store portfolio as leases expire or come up for renewal.
“Whenever we decide to close a store, we do all we can to look for other opportunities for colleagues and that work is now underway.”
The closure of Poundland's Gravesend site will come less than a week after it pulls down the shutters on sites in London's and a.
The Clapham Junction site will close on Friday May 2, while the Liverpool branch will be shut from Tuesday May 6.
Poundland is also preparing to close its store in Brackla,, which is going to .
Just last month, Poundland was forced to shut its after the Connswater Shopping Centre was placed into receivership.
The store closed its doors at the end of March, following a major closing-down sale.
Back in October, residents of Maidenhead were similarly dismayed when .
This came in addition to other closures, including its Sutton Coldfield store on October 5 and the, the latter closing due to the inability to secure a new lease agreement.
It's important to remember that retailers often open and close stores for a variety of reasons, and these decisions don't necessarily reflect financial difficulties.
For instance, a retailer may choose to close a shop if there’s another nearby location that performs better, or they might relocate to a site with higher footfall, such as a busy retail park.
Alternatively, they may decide to shift their focus entirely to online operations.
Therefore, store closures alone are not always a reliable indicator of a business's financialhealth.
What is happening at Poundland?
In March, Poundland's parent company, Pepco, enlisted advisory firm Teneo to oversee the potential sale of its UK.
The decision followed Pepco's announcement that it is exploring “all strategic options” to.
The Polish-based group had hinted that it may shift its focus towards its more profitable operations across.
Pepco previously warned that rising costs, including increases to employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and the national minimum wage, would significantly impact its bottom line.
Late last year, it was revealed that Poundland's profits had .
Executives attributed the decline to sluggish sales and a bleak outlook, compounded by measures introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
A spokesperson also said the huge loss was “due to a non-cash impairment at Poundland that relates to the acquisition of the UK chain in 2016”.
This essentially means the business's value has dropped due to expectations of reduced future cash flows.
More recently, Poundlandfor the three months ending in December, adding further strain to the troubled retailer.
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