DISCOUNT retailer Poundworld is set to create 35 jobs with the opening of a second store in Huddersfield.

The company has acquired the former Peacocks fashion store at the Piazza Shopping Centre to complement its existing shop at New Street.

Shopfitters are now at work and the shop sign has already gone up.

The store, which will begin trading on Friday, June 1, is one of 20 ex-Peacocks outlets to be snapped up by Normanton-based Poundworld.

They will open during the course of the year and are in addition to about 40 sites that Poundworld had already planned to open during 2012.

Marketing director Martyn Birks, who grew up in Huddersfield and set up his first business in Milnsbridge before joining the retailer, said: “We saw the opportunity of the Peacocks store and decided to take it.

“It is not unusual for us to have two stores in one town. It is in a good catchment area for us.

“Our existing Huddersfield store is a good performer and we felt we could go with the two operating together.”

Mr Birks said the new Huddersfield store would be about the same size as the existing New Street outlet and would stock similar merchandise.

The move heightens competition at the discount end of the retail market. The new store is just yards from rival Poundland’s Victoria Lane outlet. Poundland also has a store at New Street.

Mr Birks said discount retailers were prospering during the economic downturn because they offered value for money and had overcome their “cheap and cheerful” image.

“We feel that we have educated people about our shops and the quality of products,” he said.

“The problems has always been a ‘snob’ element about pound shops. But I have friends who are multi-millionaires who shop in pound stores.”

Last month Poundworld was ranked sixth in the regional league table and 68th UK-wide in the Sunday Times PwC Profit Track 100 league table which ranks the country’s privately-owned firms with the fastest-growing profits over the last three years.

Poundworld, which has more than 2,000 staff and 200-plus stores, reported annual profit growth of more than 52% for the past three years with its latest earnings standing at £5.49m.

Its other stores include ones in Dewsbury, Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds.

The Huddersfield branch of Peacocks closed following the collapse of the Peacocks chain and Cardiff-based parent company the Peacock Group due to debt problems earlier this year.

Fashion chain Bon Marché, which was part of the Peacock Group, was sold at the end of January to private equity firm Sun European Partners in a deal which has saved 230 stores UK-wide, the headquarters and distribution centre at Grange Moor and 2,400 jobs.