Poundstretcher buys Alworths

Poundstretcher has stepped in to salvage Alworths, dubbed the "son of Woolworths", which tumbled into administration in March.

The store's administrator, Leonard Curtis, said it had sold the entire business as well as 15 of the 17 stores put into administration at the end of March.

"We successfully traded the stores for five weeks and had a lot of interest in the business from the start," Neil Bennett of Leonard Curtis said. "We are delighted that the majority of the 235 jobs across the whole company have been saved."

Alworths was set up in 2009 by former Woolworths executive Andy Latham.