POUNDWORLD founder Chris Edwards has hit out at the bosses who took control of the retail giant before it collapsed.
He said that the business was “very badly managed” by private equity owner TPG Capital.
Edwards founded Poundworld in 1974 and sold it to TPG for £150 million three years ago.
But 44 years later the budget retailer’s final stores are soon set to close after the chain fell into administration on June 11.
TPG have blamed the collapse on the decline in the UK retail sector and a change in consumer behaviour.
However, Edwards, who tried to buy around 180 stores out of administration, has slammed TPG’s decision-making. He argues that Poundworld’s collapse wasn’t related to Brexit, the internet, or sterling’s devaluation.
Edwards said: “The new owners made expensive decisions that the business couldn’t take.
“They started recruiting people from supermarket backgrounds, who didn’t understand the discount, fixed-price model and with this they blew the firm’s wage structure.
He added: “Then, they started selling multi-price products completely ignoring Poundworld’s USP, which was its amazing range of products that were all priced at just a pound.”
Edwards said he raised concerns to TPG, sometimes through his lawyers, about how Poundworld was being run, but that his comments “fell on deaf ears”.
The retail boss also made accusations against Poundworld’s administrators at Deloitte of deliberately slowing down the sale process to generate money from the liquidation of the stock.
He said: “In my opinion the administrator deliberately slowed down any potential sale of the business to generate more cash, with no thought for the jobs that would be lost.
“In the last seven weeks, I’d estimate the business turned over approximately £40 million and we’ll wait and see where this money ends up.”
Poundworld’s downfall means that more than 5000 employees on UK high streets will lose their jobs.
Deloitte had announced tranches of store closures during the administration period but later conceded a search for a suitable buyer was unsuccessful.
TPG and Deloitte declined to comment.
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