BRITISH VALUE retailer Poundland is set to enter the Irish market using the brand name Dealz.

The company, which is majority-owned by private equity group Warburg Pincus, has confirmed to The Irish Timesthat it plans to open six stores in the Republic by the close of its financial year in March 2012.

This will create 180 jobs and will involve an investment by the British company of about €2 million.

The retailer has identified a number of suitable sites, predominantly in suburban Dublin but also in Cork.

The first four shops will open in October, with 25,000sq ft of retail selling space.

Poundland is in the process of hiring an executive to lead the Irish business.

This will be Poundland’s first expansion outside the UK and follows extensive market research over the past year, including the use of focus groups.

Poundland’s chief executive Jim McCarthy said the company could open up to 50 stores in the Republic in the coming years.

“That is the potential,” he said. “We are really looking forward to getting started in the Republic.”

Poundland’s shops in the UK sell everything for £1. The shops each carry about 3,000 items, including 800 brands, and the company says they attract three million customer transactions a week.

Mr McCarthy would not confirm its pricing strategy for Ireland but it is likely to retail all of its goods for either €1 or €2.

Founded in 1990, Poundland describes itself as Europe’s biggest single price discount retailer.

It has 347 stores in the UK, including 19 in Northern Ireland, and is forecasting sales in this financial year of more than £700 million.

Mr McCarthy said Dealz would offer customers a wide range of top brands and own label products at low prices.

Product categories will include food and drink, health and beauty, baby, batteries, homeware, pet, books and DVDs, toys, celebrations and seasonal ranges such as gardening, Halloween and Christmas.

Dealz will stock a number of locally sourced products which will be secured from Irish producers, including milk, eggs and Tayto crisps.

Top international brand names will include Colgate, Walkers, Cadbury, Maxwell House, Weightwatchers, Pantene, Beechams, Johnson’s, Winalot, Kodak, Coca Cola, Kelloggs, Maltesers, Fairy, Dettol and Flash.

“We absolutely recognise that the Irish consumer is under pressure in a similar way to the UK and value is at the top of their agenda,” Mr McCarthy added, “so we think our retail proposition will go down really well with Irish shoppers.”

Mr McCarthy, who has Irish roots, said the UK stores were “very profitable” for the company.

“We do sell cheap but we’re only interested really in strong volume lines,” he said.

Latest accounts show that Poundland Ltd made a pretax profit of £23.4 million on turnover of £509 million in the year to the end of March 2010.