Shoppers at the Famous Pound Shops in Tenby and Saundersfoot will have to put more than 'quids in' soon as store owners have been forced to put up their prices due to rising costs.

Proprietors have said that it is with regret that items for sale in the shops will be increased in price from £1 up to £1.20 from April 1.

"Unfortunately, it's not an April Fool's joke, despite the date of the change; it's something that we have no choice but to do, due to the rising costs of a number of contributing factors that go into running our business," said Sean Paris, who jointly runs the Tenby Famous Pound Shop in Upper Frog Street with Lee Malson.

It was Sean's uncle, Colin Sharp, who started the original business in Upper Frog Street 14 years ago and added the Saundersfoot store a couple of years later and another Tenby branch in Tudor Square four years ago, which Sean and Lee also ran when it was first opened.

"We've just come back from a trade show in Birmingham and the stock prices have gone up along with other aspects like carriage fuel," explained Sean.

"Unlike national stores such as Poundland, who get their stock direct, we buy or stock from importers who get it from places like China where wages have gone up recently, so everything is having a knock-on effect and the costs are being passed on to us," he continued.

"It's also been well documented the extortionate business rates that traders and shop owners in Tenby are having to pay, and that added to an increase in VAT, electricity and other factors, means it's becoming harder to manage," commented Lee.

In recent months, local county councillor Michael Williams and organisations like Tenby Chamber of Trade and Tourism have been campaigning to the Welsh Assembly Government for business rates in Tenby to be scrapped for the next two to three years, to try and get the town's economy back on track.

"The Upper Frog Street Pound Shop was established 14 years ago in the town and has kept to its pound price tag all that time, but unfortunately it's a sign of the times that we just can't manage to do that anymore," added Sean.