Bargain-hunting shoppers have helped Black Country-based Poundland to a 47 per cent surge in annual profits, the discount retailer said today.

The budget chain, which sells everything for just a £1, has stormed ahead with plans to open scores of new stores and create more than 1,000 jobs.

It bucked the trent that has hit many high street names by increasing its profits to £11.8 million from £8 million the previous year.

And like-for-like sales, which do not include figures from newly opened stores, were up 2.1 per cent in the year to March 29.

Poundland opened 41 new stores in the 12-month period and said it plans to continue at a similar rate, with the total estate forecast to reach 250 outlets this year.

The group currently has 212 stores nationwide and serves more than two million customers a week.

The company employs more than 6,500 staff – 700 of them working at Poundland’s head offices and distribution site in Willenhall and its second warehouse site in nearby Bilston – and said today it expected its expansion to create 1,200 new jobs.

Chief executive Jim McCarthy said the firm had also stepped in following the collapse of Woolworths.

“We have also helped to mitigate some of the Woolworths closures this year, taking on 150 ex-Woolworths staff and plan to open a significant number of ex-Woolworths retail units during the coming year,” Mr McCarthy said.

Poundland was the brainchild of former Wolverhampton market traders Keith Smith and his son Steve, who opened the first store in Burton-upon-Trent in 1990.