Poundland will have 320 stores across the country by Christmas

Poundland is opening new stores at a rate of around one-and-a-half a week and eventually aims to more than double its empire, its chief executive revealed today.

The Black Country-based bargain store, which opened its 300th shop at the end of last month, will take its tally to 320 stores across the UK by Christmas.

It comes as chief executive Jim McCarthy, speaking from the company's headquarters in Willenhall, revealed plans to trade online in around two years, .

Between October 28 and Christmas, 20 new stores will have opened.

Mr McCarthy said ultimately, the company could one day have 800 stores across the UK.

It has already announced plans for 50 new stores next year, creating 2,000 jobs.

Mr McCarthy said: "There are also some stores we would love to expand in the future.

"At the moment, we are going wherever the best site is for us."

Holyhead, Glasgow, Great Yarmouth and Oldham are the latest places to be added to the portfolio.

Poundland now employs around 9,500 people, including 700 at its headquarters in Wellmans Road.

It also has a giant distribution warehouse at Springvale, in Bilston.

Plans are also afoot to start trading online, although this is at an early stage.

Mr McCarthy said it was necessary for all retailers to have an online presence in the current climate.

"Internet is one of the things that is growing because it's convenient and because people have grown up with the technology," he said. "We have to consider things like postage costs but it is something we're looking into.

"There are categories of things we sell that I think would do tremendously well online.

"We are still looking into it all at the moment but it is something we will do, it just won't be for a couple of years yet."

It is believed homeware, party goods and gifts could be sold online.

This year, Poundland announced its operating profits in the 12 months to April had risen Bby a huge 81.5 per cent to £21.5 million.

And it is now entering its most lucrative period as it prepares to cash in on Christmas — and is already looking forward to next December.

It is expecting to sell more than 100 million items this December and McCarthy admitted: "It's going to be manic.

"At Christmas, it's like having five of our normal days — we get absolutely rammed with people seeking bargains. "Immediately after Christmas we must start planning for the next s.

Our trading team are working straight away with suppliers because the thing about us is we always have different items.

That's one of the special things about Poundland, you're never quite sure what you're going to get from it.

About 70 per cent of our Christmas range each year will be new stock."

Work on merchandising and even displays also gets started in January or February, while getting the stock out to more than 320 stores across the UK is a military operation— especially when you're dealing with three million customers per week.

"Things have to be absolutely planned," says Mr McCarthy, who has previously worked on the boards of Sainsbury's and Tesco.

"It's all planned in precise detail.

"We start to think about marketing really early, too, and that department gets behind the campaigns, and we also think about things like packaging.

"But getting the right products into the right stores in the right quantities is a real work of art and that starts to get delivered into the stores throughout September and then once we get through another busy time for us, Halloween, immediately after that the Christmas mayhem starts."

Maybe it is this meticulous and early planning that is helping Poundland, which currently employs around 9.500 workers, become one of the fastest expanding retailers in the country.

One of the company's main strengths is it definitely knows its audience.

Seventy per cent of its customers are women, while the shoppers are divided into two main categories — those who shop there because they have to and those who shop there because they love a bargain.

But despite its "does what it says on the tin" the most common phrase heard in Poundland is "How much is this?"

"We still get that all the time," laughs the genial Mr McCarthy.

"As long as I keep hearing that, I'll be a very happy chief executive — it means people can't believe the value on offer.

"I always say Poundland is a place where you should never see a child crying — they can ask their parents for something and it always costs just a pound."