Value retailer Poundstretcher is understood to have brought in former Poundworld boss Chris Edwards to lead its battle against falling sales.
Edwards told Insider Media this week he had now started at Poundstretcher, two years after selling Poundworld to TPG for around £150m in 2015. Speculation that Edwards was about to join Poundstretcher had been running high since a Sunday Times report in October.
His new role comes as newly filed accounts for Poundstretcher show total sales fell 7.5% from £429.5m to £397.4m in the year to 31 March as the chain, owned by the Tayub brothers’ Crown Crest Group, continued to shrink its store estate.
Poundstretcher is pursuing a strategy to shut older, smaller high street stores and open larger outlets out of town. During the year it closed 26 and opened 21 to bring its store estate down to 385 outlets - in addition to the net decline of 15 stores in its 2015/16 financial year.
Poundstretcher’s sales had grown rapidly to £438.3m in its 2014/15 year before growth halted amid rising pressure from other discount rivals. However, its trading EBITDA rose 5.4% to £11.2m in this March’s accounts, while pre-tax profits rose 13.5% to £2.7m.
Its average staffing levels dropped by more than 12% during the year from 6,318 to 5,546 as it streamlined its operations to boost help boost trading margins.
Parent company Crown Crest also saw an 8.4% sales decline to £411.5m as Poundstretcher’s sales decline was exacerbated by difficulties in the Crown Crest wholesale business.
The parent group pointed to “continuing pressures in the external wholesale market” as its wholesale sales dropped by almost 30% back to £13.8m from £19.6m.
Crown Crest also saw a rise in underlying profit from £3.5m to £8.8m, but a £12.3m currency hit from the Brexit-driven fall in the pound meant it made a statutory pre-tax loss of £5.4m compared to a profit of £2m in the previous financial year.
Its average staffing levels dropped by more than 12% during the year from 6,318 to 5,546 as it streamlined its operations to boost help boost trading margins.
Crown Crest also saw a rise in underlying profit from £3.5m to £8.8m, but a £12.3m currency hit from the Brexit-driven fall in the pound meant it made a statutory pre-tax loss of £5.4m compared to a profit of £2m in the previous financial year.
Poundstretcher did not return requests for comment.
Owners the Tayub brothers admitted private equity player Endless approached them over a possible deal this year, but the proposal was rebuffed and they are committed to remaining independent.
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