Wharton was appointed Interim CFO when his predecessor, who had been FD for almost three years, was declared bankrupt following a tax dispute relating to income earned before he joined SuperGroup.
Wills was suspended from his £500,000-a-year job and forced to step down immediately from its board after revealing that the UK tax authorities had obtained a personal bankruptcy order against him on 10 February. This was later annulled after a short hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice. At the time, Wills called HMRC “draconian” in its methods and said the taxman had acted prematurely. He suggested that he had put all his energy into work and not enough into his own personal situation – something he should have fixed much sooner, he added. SuperGroup shares went down by three per cent in morning trading on the London Stock Exchange. The company insisted it was a personal matter and unrelated to the financial position of the business. “I started covering retail in 1987 and I have never heard of anything like this before,” said Tony Shiret, retail analyst at Espirito Santo, who said he was “shocked” to learn of Wills’ bankruptcy. He added that SuperGroup had a history of profit warnings and departing directors. Read more about CFOs:
Wills himself joined SuperGroup in 2012 after its finance director quit following a profit warning triggered by an “arithmetic error”. CEO Julian Dunkerton stepped down in 2014 to rebrand the company, while in 2015 the company’s chief operating officer, Susanne Given, left to “explore other opportunities”. According to RBC analyst Richard Chamberlain, the issue with SuperGroup is that it has expanded too quickly, without the supporting infrastructure. He suggested that the group had over-promised and under-delivered. Shiret added that Euan Sutherland – who described previous events as unfortunate announcements – was brought in to stamp out “that kind of stuff”. He was adamant that he business was in more control, and that the Wharton’s upgrade from interim CFO to a permanent role would only help the company moving forward. In an announcement, Peter Bamford, chairman of SuperGroup, said Wharton had already had a highly positive impact. His deep financial management skills and broad retail and business experience will be great assets to SuperGroup, he added. By Shané Schutte
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.