Sales at Poundland were up 15% to £880 million last year and 51 new stores opened. The company said it also plans to open 1,000 new stores across the UK.
The discount retailer reported in its results for the year to March 31 2013 that gross profit grew 14.6% to £323.4 million, compared to £282 million for the year 2011-2012. 51 new stores opened in the UK, which is nearly one a week, bringing the total to 430, representing an 18% increase in overall trading space.

In the Republic of Ireland, Poundland trades under the company name 'Dealz' and a further 17 stores were opened there; plus, the company reported it was a profitable first full year of trading.

"This has been a year of tremendous progress for Poundland," said Poundland CEO Jim McCarthy. "The discount sector is now a mainstream feature of the UK retail scene. I'm confident that over time [we] will have over 1,000 stores across the UK. In the first 25 weeks of the current year we have opened 30 new stores.

"Our single price point and our amazing value are appealing to an increasingly broad section of UK shoppers," he added.

1,700 new jobs were created throughout the year and the retailer said that 4.5 million customers were served each week, including 200,000 a week in Republic of Ireland.

The company's expansion in the UK led to it setting up a temporary distribution centre in Hertfordshire. This will be replaced in 2014 with a new 350,000sq ft custom built, environmentally efficient distribution centre in Essex, creating 650 new, permanent, jobs.