He warned that the two or three thousand suppliers to the firm only worked for Poundland so they would be directly affected by its collapse.
“This is not just about 12, 000 jobs. I’m estimating more like 20 or 30,000 jobs,” he added.
The company has 600 stores in the UK and Ireland, and Smith said it had between four and five million customers a week, so with Poundland not being present on high streets would “cause a lot of other retailers to fall as well”.
Liam Byrne, chair of the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee and Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, said he felt the company could be saved and “the whole deal stinks to high heaven right now”.
“Because I think the issue that we’ve got is, you’ve got an owner that could well be trying to cut and run, to sell a business that is in fact a going concern in order to maximize their own profits and put in jeopardy 12,000 British jobs on the high street.”
