Discount retailer Poundstretcher has awarded a 10% pay rise to its nearly 4,000 store employees, effective from 1 April 2023.
All members of staff who have worked for the business for at least one year will be eligible for the increase, which includes more than 70% of its workforce and the majority of its customer-facing employees.
This is the second consecutive year that Poundstretcher has given its employees a 10% pay increase, as last year it implemented the salary hike to reward them for their hard work post-pandemic and for the positive turnaround of its profits following its successful company voluntary arrangement. This began in 2020 and allowed it to pay back debts over an agreed period, as well as closing stores and making more than 200 redundancies.
Aziz Tayub, chief executive of Poundstretcher, said: “This 10% pay raise will make a real difference in this current climate to the majority of our employees who are committed to servicing our customers and growing our business in the current economic climate. This will be the second year in a row we will have introduced a second pay rise in the same year for our store colleagues, we wanted to do more to support them, and to say thank you for their commitment to quality service and customer care.”
The retailer opened more than 30 stores nationwide in 2022 and has plans to open another 50 by the end of 2023. It stated that its profitability has grown since 2020, and that it is now looking towards a profitable future that will drive sales, profits and number of stores growth and generate more than 2,000 jobs over the next five years.