When is a rescue deal not a rescue deal? The rushed sale of pound-shop peddler Poundland to Gordon Brothers comes with all the bog-standard fanfare.
“Poundland remains a key player in UK discount retail, with millions of customers annually and a well-loved brand and proposition,” according to Stephan Borchert, boss of Poundland’s Polish parent Pepco.
Really? So well-loved that Pepco slashed the value of Poundland by a stonking £650m six months ago, blaming a “significant decline in performance”?
Such a compelling proposition that Pepco was willing to let it go for less than a pound? Talk about an ignominious end if ever there was one to owning a business that pioneered the cheerless pound-shop model.
Competition, Mate, competition.
When there’s one One Pound shop buying up the scrag ends of overruns and discontinued lines then wholesale prices on scrag ends are pretty cheap. When there are half a dozen bidders for the same wholesale scrag ends then prices rise and margins on One Pound shops decline.
This is how business works.
There’s a reason I’m not employed by the Telegraph’s business pages these days.
“As an aside, surely there comes a point when the world is overwhelmed with soulless sheds selling cheap gear – much of it of questionable quality? It is a reminder that you truly do get what you pay for.”
See, now we get down to what Ben really cares about. Ghastly prole stuff, rather than gleaming Apple stores and charming cheesemongers.
Poundland are great at what they do precisely because they’re soulless. When I’m buying an HDMI cable, I don’t want to pay for all the fripperies, like the business doing a load of “save the planet” stuff or making it some Zaha Hadid designed interior, or banging on about their charity or telling me how nice they are to their suppliers. It’s a place to go and buy stuff. Make it as simple as possible so it’s cheap for me.
There is some cosmic thing going on for the whole of Poundland to be worth exactly one pound.
It’s not worth one pound. It was *priced* at one pound. As with any transaction, it will be worth more than one pound to the buyer, otherwise they wouldn’t have bought it.
Pendantry noted.
The rest of the pendantry: Also it was worth less than one pound to the seller.
I guessed it was Marlow. What a cock.
Marius
That did make me ROFL. He is such a f%^^&ing prick – just an imbecile
Regarding Poundland there are numerous competitors – but I would guess Temu and Shein are the main two having an impact ( maybe Aliexpress) but also Discount Dragon. That’s how these things work.
It’s possible that this government, the worst in history might unwittingly come to their aid by abolishing the de minimis exemptions for Temu and Shein. Can’t let the proles have cheap stuff. It’s as Murphy says – he , or people like him should be able to inspect your house and allocate what they think you need.
Pedantry? It’s a perfect demonstration why money has no fixed value. That was a massive eureka moment for me, when I understood it.
Poundland remains a key player in UK discount retail, with millions of customers annually and a well-loved brand
Well that’s a fucking lie.