Gordon Brothers, which formerly owned fashion label Laura Ashley, bought Poundland for the nominal sum of £1.
It says it will invest up to £80m in Poundland to help turn the business around.
Poundland say it expects to end up with between 650 and 700 stores across the UK and Ireland after the overhaul.
Along with store closures, Poundland says it will move towards a more “streamlined” food offering and will stop selling frozen food in stores to focus on £3 meal deals and other essentials such as milk.
The discount chain also announced they plan to stop online sales through its Poundland.co.uk website and retire its Perks app as the business “focuses on its in-store offer for customers”.
Poundland said they expect the court proceedings for the restructuring to conclude in late summer.
Barry Williams, managing director of Poundland said: “It’s no secret that we have much work to do to get Poundland back on track.
“While Poundland remains a strong brand, serving 20m-plus shoppers each year, our performance for a significant period has fallen short of our high standards and action is needed to enable the business to return to growth.
“It’s sincerely regrettable that this plan includes the closure of stores and distribution centres, but it’s necessary if we’re to achieve our goal of securing the future of thousands of jobs and hundreds of stores.
“It goes without saying that if our plans are approved, we will do all we can to support colleagues who will be directly affected by the changes.”
