Poundland plans to recruit 120 staff at distribution centre as part of digital expansion

The value variety retailer has selected its Barnsley chilled and frozen food centre in Darton to host its second digital distribution centre.

Poundland aims to increase the number of staff at the distribution centre from 77 to around 200 by the end of the year, with roles including shift managers, team leaders and warehouse operators.

The expansion at Darton forms part of Poundland’s commitment to “nurture and grow” employment at the site when it acquired Fultons.

The Fultons partnership enabled Poundland to roll out frozen and chilled foods to more than half of its 800-plus stores nationwide to become its national frozen distribution centre.

Its online business has seen massive growth since the acquisition of Poundshop.com and its picking and fulfilment operations centre in Wednesbury, West Midlands. Poundshop.com has seen orders more than double under Poundland ownership.

As operations are running close to full capacity, the second digital distribution centre allows the retailer to accelerate and expand its digital business.

Poundland plans to combine its Poundshop.com and Poundland.co.uk websites in the summer to allow customers to shop an expanded Poundland range online for delivery to their homes. 

Poundland director of digital Tom Hill said: “We’re extremely proud to bring good jobs news to Barnsley and South Yorkshire.

“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.”

As well as digital expansion, Poundland is undergoing a store transformation by extending its grocery offering and opening a raft of new stores across the UK.