Peterborough MP urges government to step in to save Poundland jobs at three city stores
A call to save scores of jobs at three stores operated in Peterborough by endangered retailer Poundland has gone out to the government’s business chiefs.
Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes is urging ministers to step in to protect workers as the discount retailer moves closer to administration with about 11,000 jobs at risk.
Poundland has three stores in Peterborough – at the Brotherhood Retail Park and at the Hereward Cross Shopping Centre in Broadway and at the Bretton Centre in Bretton Way.
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Mr Pakes said: “These stores all provide good local jobs.
"The future of those jobs now depends on what happens in the coming days.
He said: “The problem isn't the shops or the staff.
"It's the owners – the US investment firm Gordon Brothers that bought Poundland last year for just £1.
"It has now turned down a rescue offer that would have kept the business together, and it has cut off the funding the company needs to run day to day.
"Instead, it looks ready to break Poundland up and sell off the stores one by one.
Mr Pakes added: “Throughout all this, the people whose jobs are on the line have been left out as Gordon Brothers has refused to engage with Usdaw, the union that represents Poundland staff.”
Now Mr Pakes has written to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds urging the government to bring Gordon Brothers to the table with Usdaw and to explore every option to keep stores open and protect jobs.
He said: “Poundland is a profitable business and there are now two credible bids on the table to keep stores open and protect jobs.
"The owners must get around the table and engage.
"I've been speaking to local staff and meeting Usdaw representatives, and it is outrageous that workers and local management are being shut out while the future of a successful high-street company hangs in the balance.
"We cannot allow a profitable British retailer to be sold off in a fire sale."
Usdaw National Officer Bally Auluk said: “It has been incredibly distressing for Poundland staff who have had to watch from the sidelines as a multi-billion pound company jeopardises their livelihoods as it tries to extract £30m from a business it bought for £1."