Breakfast briefing: Retail news on Poundland, Argos and Topshop

Poundland to open 11 new Dealz shops in Ireland

Poundland is planning to expand its store network in Ireland with 11 new Dealz discount stores over the next 15 months, creating 250 to 300 new jobs.

Dealz, which has invested €8.3m in its store network to date, will make further investment of about €1.75m to open new stores, bringing Dealz store count in Ireland to 41, according to the Irish Times.

Argos to hire 10,000 seasonal workers for busy Christmas period

Argos will recruit around 10,000 seasonal workers in the UK for the busy festive season.

The seasonal workers will join the firm’s existing 30,000 employees and will be on a 3 month contract initially, with the potential for some jobs to become permanent at the end of the season, according to The Guardian.

Last year, the retailer advertised for 12,000 seasonal workers.

Topshop permanently banned from using Rihanna’s image

Topshop is permanently banned from using Rihanna’s image following a legal battle, which found it guilty of selling an unauthorised T-shirt with the singer’s picture without her permission.

The judge at a hearing granted Rihanna a permanent injunction from Topshop and ordered Topshop to pay Rihanna’s estimated £919,000 legal fees, according to The Telegraph.

Topshop had sold the garment with Rihanna’s image, which was taken without her permission, between March and August 2012.

Arcadia said in a statement: “Contrary to several reports, Topshop was not ordered to pay Rihanna’s total legal costs (c. £920k) yesterday. Topshop was ordered to make an interim payment of £200,000.The Judge noted that Rihanna’s legal costs were “startling”. In addition he specifically disallowed some of Rihanna’s legal costs inrelation to certain of her evidence and positively awarded Topshop its costs of certain applications.

“Subject to the Judge’s decision being overturned on appeal, Rihanna will be entitled to a proportion of her reasonable legal costs, to be decided at a separate hearing which has yet to be scheduled.”

It added: “The Judge granted a narrow injunction requiring Topshop to refrain from selling any T-shirts featuring this particular image o Rihanna without clearly informing customers that the garment is not endorsed, authorized or approved by Rihanna.

“Topshop welcomes the decision of Mr Justice Birss to grant it permission to appeal his judgment where he found in favour of Rihanna.”