The owner of discount retailer Poundland today admitted that its customers remained reticent about shopping in its stores despite the easing in lockdown restrictions.
Sales at Pepco, which has 823 UK and Ireland Poundland outlets as part of a 2,844-strong estate across Europe, have recovered week-on-week since a low point in early April.
Trading, however, remains below normal as customers “remain reticent about visiting busy locations, including retail stores”. Pepco, which is run by former Asda chief executive Andy Bond, expects the underperformance to continue for the rest of its financial year.
Poundland qualifies as an “essentials” retailer and experienced an initial benefit from customer stockpiling of cleaning, healthcare and food products.
However, the Covid-19 lockdown still led to the temporary closure of 130 stores and the remaining 700 or so outlets traded through significantly reduced visitor numbers at 60% of expected sales levels for the first four weeks of the lockdown.
Pepco said that 99% of all group stores were now trading, although like-for-like sales remain negative. Before Covid-19, positive like-for-like revenue growth in all brands including Poundland and Dealz was at 2.2% for the five months to February.
The sales impact from Covid-19 towards the end of the trading period meant Pepco today reported a 16.3% fall in first-half profit to €89 million (£80 million).
The group has reduced operating costs at Poundland, with a further 76 store leases renegotiated in the six months at levels ahead of expectations.
