B&M has reportedly registered interest in buying a selection of Poundland stores rather than the whole discount chain, as owner Gordon Brothers weighs a sale or a break-up. Retail Gazette reported on 20 October 2026 that the process covers nearly 600 stores and around 12,000 jobs, with a deal targeted before Christmas.
Gordon Brothers bought Poundland from Pepco Group for £1 in June 2025, according to Retail Gazette. The owner has since appointed three restructuring specialists to the board and is aiming to reach an agreement before Christmas. The newspaper’s account is based on reports of the sale process, and no company in the process has published its own statement in the coverage reviewed.
B&M’s interest in individual stores
According to the report, B&M has registered interest in some stores, “potentially in the low double digits”, rather than in the chain as a whole. That would move individual sites to another discount operator without a sale of the whole business. The article describes the process as a race to secure a rescue deal and avoid administration.
Other parties named in the process
Several other bidders are named. Lidl, The Range, whose owner is Chris Dawson, and Fortress Investment Group, which owns Poundstretcher, are reported as interested. At least two bids for the whole company remain on the table. One of them, from Martin Property Group, is reported at “as little as £1” and is said to be favoured by management.
What would an insolvency route involve?
The article says a break-up “involving an insolvency process” remains possible if a solvent sale cannot be agreed. No administration, company voluntary arrangement (CVA) or liquidation has been reported as started. The distinction matters, because the three are separate legal procedures with different consequences for stores, creditors and landlords.
Administration and CVA are not the same
In an administration, an insolvency practitioner takes control of the company to rescue it or sell its assets. In a CVA, the company proposes a deal to its creditors and directors stay in control. Neither has been reported at Poundland.
The official record of insolvency notices in the UK is The Gazette, where appointments of administrators and winding-up petitions are published with their dates. Until such a notice appears, the sale process described by the newspaper remains a commercial negotiation.
Timing and what remains open
The options now described differ in scale. A whole-company bid keeps the chain together, while store-by-store interest, such as B&M’s, would split it. With nearly 600 stores and around 12,000 jobs, the average is about 20 jobs per store, which gives a sense of what each lot in a break-up would carry. The figures are the newspaper’s, not the company’s, and they may change as bids are revised.
Gordon Brothers has set Christmas as its target. Until a buyer or a break-up plan is confirmed, the status of the nearly 600 stores and their leases stays undecided. Poundland has not been described as a franchise network in the sources reviewed, so the story is covered here as a discount retail sale process rather than a network change, where each site would have its own owner rather than changing hands with the company, as what a franchise is explained.