Reported by BBC Business
Poundland has been a recognisable presence on high streets for more than 35 years
"When I told people what I wanted to do, open shops on the high street selling things for one pound, they said, 'how will you find products to sell for a pound, what about inflation, it will never work.'"
That is how Steve Smith, the founder of Poundland, describes the genesis of the budget giant - which went on to employ thousands of people and see over a million customers a week - on his own website , external .
More from the original report
But now the West Midlands-based retailer is teetering on the edge , after its US-based owners Gordon Brothers cut off a vital funding supply and rejected a takeover offer from Irish firm Martin Property Group.
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Having spent time on his parents stall since the age of two Wolverhampton-born businessman Smith started out in the very same place - selling items for £1 from his own stall.
After a £50,000 loan from his parents he opened the first Poundland shop , in The Octagon Shopping Centre in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, on 13 December 1990.
That first day, with a range of 624 products, the store took more than £13,000 - "and Poundland was born," Smith said.
Smith and his wife, Tracy, now based in Shropshire, owned the company for 16 years.
In 2006, he decided the time had come and he sold his final shares in the business for £250m, but later said the sale felt it was "as though somebody had died".
Steven Smith founded Poundland in 1990 with the help of his father, Kevin Smith
But by 2025, the Walsall-based company was itself sold for just £1 .
Its owner, Polish firm Pepco, confirmed it had sold the brand for a "nominal" sum to US investment firm Gordon Brothers.
At the time Poundland had more than 800 stores across the UK and Ireland and employed around 16,000 staff.
"I did pick up the phone…