Poundland has offered jobs to more than 200 former Wilko workers as it continues to open stores the collapsed retailer once owned.
Last month, the variety store chain bought 71 of Wilko’s 398 stores from administrator PwC following the demise of the High Street shop.
The stores involved in the deal will be relaunched under the Poundland brand with the first ten reopening last weekend.
No workers were directly transferred to Poundland as part of the rescue deal.
But the discount chain encouraged former Wilko staff to apply for roles and said it would ‘prioritise’ them for positions at the stores.
Last month, Poundland bought 71 of Wilko’s 398 stores from administrator PwC following the demise of the High Street shop
That raised hopes that some of Wilko’s 12,500 staff could find new jobs.
Poundland said it has made job offers to more than 200 former Wilko staff, with that ‘number increasing day by day’.
The business also revealed the next ten former Wilko stores it will reopen under their brand.
They include rescued stores in Nottingham, Worcester, Ellesmere Port and Pontypool, which will open on Saturday.
Austin Cooke, managing director of Poundland, said: ‘Our people make Poundland special and last week they did an amazing job to turn ex-Wilko stores into brand new Poundlands in just six days – the size and scale of what they’ve achieved has been nothing short of phenomenal.
But they worked hard because we meant what we said about moving quickly to create jobs for Wilko colleagues.
‘And that’s why we’ll pull out all the stops to repeat that feat and open another ten stores this weekend.
‘I know from meeting our new colleagues from Wilko, how delighted they were to welcome customers old and new back to their store last weekend.’
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