Multi-millionaire Poundland founder joins TV's 'Rich House, Poor House' - swapping his Shropshire mansion for a semi-detached home in Stafford

Multi-millionaire Steve Smith, who made his fortune from the once booming budget chain Poundland - renowned for selling all products for £1, appeared on the Channel 5 reality show with his son Joe.

The pair swapped lives with the struggling Deeming-Thomas family of seven from Stafford and had to survive on a £38 budget for a week.

Filming for the show took former market stallholder Steve back to Bilston Market where it all began for him and his late dad Keith, who founded Poundland together with fellow market trader Dave Dodd.

He told the Express & Star he enjoyed revisiting his Black Country roots for the show and sharing the experience with Joe, aged 30.

Steve and his dad originally sold items for 10p in a box on Bilston Market and the concept proved successful so they set up an office above Sedgley's Concord Market and opened their first store in Burton-on-Trent on December 13 1990 - turning over £13,000 in one day.

“It makes you remember where you came from,” he said after revisiting the market.

The Wolverhampton-born entrepreneur swapped his 200-acre estate Ludstone Hall in Claverley, Shropshire, one of the country’s finest Jacobean mansions with a moat and parkland, for the Deeming-Thomas family’s modest three/four-bedroom semi-detached housing association home which accommodates dad Jon, aged 40, and mum Kelly, aged 41, both plasterers, and their five children Marli, aged 20, Camara, aged 16, Rekhia, aged 14, Drey, aged 13, and Amari, aged 10.

Steve, aged 63, who lived in Willenhall for some time before the Poundland empire made him wealthy, said: “It was a great experience for us. We lived their lives for a week.

“We spent about £12 on groceries and we managed it. They had about £2,000 a week to spend.”

Although working as plasterers, the Deeming-Thomas’s did not have a van or advertise and had been struggling to make ends meet.

Since the show was filmed, however, generous Steve, who sold Poundland for £250 million in 2006, said he’s bought them a van and “given them quite a bit of work” and he added: “We’ve kept them busy. We’re helping them turn their lives around."

The couple, who have been together for 24 years, said the experience of going on the show and meeting Steve had been life changing.

Jon said: “I can speak to Steve like a mate. He’s done lots for us and has put our lives 100 per cent on track.”

Kelly said: “Steve’s been trying to help us progress more with our business. He’s amazing - he’s changed our lives. He’s given us a van, got us a new sofa, a shed and cleaned up our garden. He’s also got us on Checkatrade and is paying for Jon’s driving lessons. It’s really great that he’s given us his time.”

She said appearing on Rich House, Poor House was “definitely an experience” and good to see how the other half live. 

She added: “It was really, really good - to see how life is for the rich and for someone to come to the hard side and experience this side.”

Kelly, a former support worker turned plasterer and decorator, said it was good to learn about saving, budgeting and business and a treat to have £2,000 to spend for the week of the show.

She said: “It was definitely fun. We got a big shop in, and did some clothes shopping, which was really nice, and we got a take away without even thinking about how much it was going to cost.”

Jon said he was a “bit sceptical in the beginning" about going on the show - having applied for it a few years ago.

But he said it had been “an experience” and “next level” getting to stay at Ludstone Hall where he and Kelly, who have been running their own business for about two years, have since been invited back by Steve to do some decorative work.

Steve said of meeting the Deeming Thomas’s: “They’re a nice family. They’re trying really hard. They just need a break really.”

Reminiscing about his own life growing up, he said: “You don’t forget where you come from.

“When I was a little boy we lived with my dad’s parents and had very little money. My grandad used to say ‘if you don't work you don't eat’ and ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’. This was great advice.”

He told how there were some “funny” moments during the filming of the show, which is set to air on Channel 5 on Sunday February 15 at 9pm, and he added that programme-makers are “expecting a lot of people to watch it”.

The show can also be watched on demand on www.channel5.com after it airs on TV.