With the chain on the brink of administration, its low-profile US owners face questions about their conduct

‘It was a very successful and simple proposition,” laments one former Poundland boss. With every product in the shop sold at £1, and the price in its name, its proposition to shoppers was the clearest of any UK high street chain.

Now the UK’s first and biggest nationwide single-price retailer could disappear amid heavy competition and inflation that has eaten into its ability to offer bargains.