Multi-millionaire Poundland founder joins TV's 'Rich House, Poor House' - swapping his Shropshire mansion for a semi-detached home in Stafford
The Black Country entrepreneur who founded Poundland took a trip down memory lane to Bilston Market as he joined TV’s ‘Rich House, Poor House’, swapping his mansion for a semi detached home in Stafford - with the episode set to air this weekend.
Multi-millionaire Steve Smith, who made his fortune from the once booming budget chain Poundland - renowned for selling all products for £1, appeared on the Channel 5 reality show with his son Joe.
The pair swapped lives with the struggling Deeming-Thomas family of seven from Stafford and had to survive on a £38 budget for a week.
Filming for the show took former market stallholder Steve back to Bilston Market where it all began for him and his late dad Keith, who founded Poundland together with fellow market trader Dave Dodd.
He told the Express & Star he enjoyed revisiting his Black Country roots for the show and sharing the experience with Joe, aged 30.
Steve and his dad originally sold items for 10p in a box on Bilston Market and the concept proved successful so they set up an office above Sedgley's Concord Market and opened their first store in Burton-on-Trent on December 13 1990 - turning over £13,000 in one day.
“It makes you remember where you came from,” he said after revisiting the market.
The Wolverhampton-born entrepreneur swapped his 200-acre estate Ludstone Hall in Claverley, Shropshire, one of the country’s finest Jacobean mansions with a moat and parkland, for the Deeming-Thomas family’s modest three/four-bedroom semi-detached housing association home which accommodates dad Jon, aged 40, and mum Kelly, aged 41, both plasterers, and their five children Marli, aged 20, Camara, aged 16, Rekhia, aged 14, Drey, aged 13, and Amari, aged 10.
