Sainsbury’s poaches CEO of Poundland for CFO role

Sainsbury’s has poached the CEO of Poundland as its new chief financial officer.

Kevin O’Byrne will join the UK supermarket in early January, replacing John Rogers who has already moved to head up the new Sainsbury’s Argos business, with Ed Barker continuing as CFO in the interim.

O’Byrne only joined Poundland in July this year, but two months later the discount retailer was bought  by South African retail giant Steinhoff, with O’Byrne reportedly offered around £2.7 million in shares to stay on, retailgazette.co.uk reported at the time. Prior to this appointment, he was chief executive and group finance director of B&Q UK & Ireland for three years, and previously worked as a director at Kingfisher, after heading up finance at Dixons Retail plc for eight years.

Group chief executive Mike Coupe said he was delighted to welcome O’Byrne to the team. “We are two years into the delivery of our strategy and this is an important time as we integrate the Argos and Habitat businesses into the group. Kevin brings a wealth of retail and finance experience and a track record in growing businesses,” he said.

In September the retailer saw trading slip in the first half of the year, with retail sales down 0.4% in the 16 weeks to 24 September. The latest Kantar data also showed sales down 0.4% n the 12 weeks to 9 October, compared to gains at Tesco, Waitrose, The Coop and discounters Aldi and Lidl.

However it is in the process of ramping up its online offer, having opened a new Bromley fulfilment centre to cater for online grocery sales in London, as well as rolling out a Deliveroo-styles pilot one-hour grocery-by-bike service, Chop Chop across Central London.

The retailer has recently boosted its focus on premium Taste the Difference wines, revealing a dozen new own label wines, including a £7 claret, plus three fines wines in the autumn, and a new line up of “fresh and fun” Buenos Aires-inspired wines, called Comuna.