Poundland’s first foray into Europe is part of an ambitious growth plan that should see the Willenhall-based company become a billion pound business within the next three years.

The company announced this week it was opening four stores in Ireland under the name of Dealz and chief executive officer Jim McCarthy said that was just the tip of the iceberg.

“We will grow by at least 50 stores this year to March 2012,” he said. “We have 347 and we will not be far off 400 by year end.

“We are already a $1 billion business, if you contrast us to the dollar shops in the US, and aim to reach £1 billion in turnover in the next two to three years.”

The company, which has been trading for 21 years and is Europe’s largest single price discount retailer, revealed it had been planning a move into Europe for the past year.

As to why the Republic of Ireland was chosen, Mr McCarthy said it was “a logical first step” and would prove a useful testing ground for expansion further afield, particularly as UK and Irish shoppers had much in common and the company already had a foothold in Northern Ireland.

“In October of 2009 we opened our first of our Northern Ireland shops and now have 19 of those,” he said.

“What we wanted to do was to expand into the Republic of Ireland as our first move into a euro-based economy. Our systems and processes have been adapted, updated and modified to be able to handle the euro.

“Models show the Republic of Ireland shopper has very many similar characteristics to the UK shopper – they all like bargains – and in the current economic situation that prevails they are definitely looking for amazing value.

"Many of the brands that our UK customers appreciate Irish customers also appreciate, like Cadbury, Mars, Nestle, Unilever, Kraft, Coca-Cola and Britvic.

“Given the strength of the market research and the fact we are in Northern Ireland anyway and we want to enter a different market, the Republic of Ireland was a natural choice for expansion of the company’s activities.”

The first challenge for Poundland was coming up with a new name for its European arm.

Mr McCarthy admitted that Euroland was considered, but dismissed after focus groups in the Republic of Ireland vetoed the name given recent events with the euro.

“We looked through the complete list and for something that would transcend any euro association and Dealz came out as the clear winner.”

Although the Irish operation will originally be fairly small scale, with just four stores employing 120 people, the company has plans to push on.

“We think there are about 50 sites we can operate from,” said Mr McCarthy. “These will be traditional sites in major city centres, shopping malls and retail parks – sites where there is heavy customer traffic.

“We will ramp up our expansion programme there and research other European markets. The one that comes out strongest we will enter first but I wouldn’t put a timetable on that.

“What we know is that we need to get this one right but this expansion should give us good experience that will make our entry in mainland Europe successful.”

As far as job creation on the home front goes the ongoing expansion will mean more jobs at its customer support centre in Willenhall.

Growth in the UK remains fairly rapid with 20 new stores opening since April.

“We are adding jobs all the time,” added Mr McCarthy. “Last year we opened 64 stores, which is around 30 people per store.

"We also need to service those and have to add people into our distribution centres and customer support centre. We have to add people to support that growth.

“Poundland’s success in the UK has helped us to create jobs and that will continue.”

The latest to be announced is a 6,000 sq ft store at St Andrew’s shopping park in Birmingham, which opens its doors on August 13 and was described by Mr McCarthy as “the size of a typical Woolworth”.

Sticking to its winning formula will continue to be the core philosophy for Poundland as it pushes forward and there are no plans to change the single price ceiling.

Mr McCarthy added: “We have been selling at the same price for 21 years and have experienced two recessions, good and bad times and high and low inflation.”

“We have never been afraid to de-list a product where we can no longer afford to sell it. As you get products dropping off others come in.

“Also, if you are growing – which we are – manufacturers tend to be interested and you can leverage that volume to growth.

“We are not frightened to go global with sourcing, although two-thirds of our products are UK sourced – something we are very proud of.”