Poundland has begun recruitment for around 120 new roles at its Barnsley chilled and frozen food hub in Darton, South Yorkshire, as it transforms the site into its second digital distribution centre.
In the course of the coming months, Poundland intends to increase the number of roles at Darton from 77 to almost 200 by December as the centre becomes a hub for its growing digital business.
Poundland’s online business is growing rapidly after the 2022 acquisition of Poundshop.com and its picking and fulfilment operations centre in Wednesbury, West Midlands.
The success of Poundshop.com which has seen orders more than double under Poundland ownership, means its operations are running close to full capacity. Adding Darton as the discount retailer’s second digital centre will enable Poundland to continue to expand its digital business at pace.
After establishing the second digital distribution centre at Darton, it intends to combine its Poundshop.com and Poundland.co.uk websites later this summer, allowing customers to shop an expanded Poundland range online for delivery to their homes.
The expansion at Darton adds to Poundland’s commitment when it acquired Fultons, to nurture and grow employment at the site. The partnership with the Fultons team has enabled Poundland to roll out frozen and chilled foods to more than half its 800-plus stores nationwide, proudly becoming its National Frozen Distribution Centre.
“We’re extremely proud to bring good jobs news to Barnsley and South Yorkshire,” said Poundland director of digital Tom Hill.
“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.”
Poundland’s digital expansion is one element of the transformation programme being rolled out across the business. Alongside chilled and frozen food, this includes bringing Pep clothing and homewares to the majority of its stores. It is also currently bringing fresh fruit and vegetables, and beers wines and spirits to an increasing number of locations as it offers more of what customers buy week-in, week-out.
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 in FY23 and expects to have opened around 50 by the end of September.
