The CEO of Steinhoff’s European discount retailer Pepco, Andy Bond, will be stepping down at the end of March due to health reasons.
Pepco, the owner of the Pepco and Dealz brands in mainland Europe and Poundland in the UK, said Bond would remain in an advisory role until the end of September.
Bond has overseen rapid growth of the group, and had acted as an adviser to the legacy Pepkor SA group since 2012, before jointly setting up Pepkor Europe as a founder investor in 2015, when he became CEO. Pepkor Europe became Pepco Group in 2019.
“He has skilfully guided the business through a period of extraordinary growth from 200 stores in a single country to well over 3,500 in 19 countries culminating in the float of the business on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in May 2021,” Pepco said in a statement on Wednesday.
Pepco’s stores had initially been concentrated in Eastern and Central Europe, but under Bond, a former CEO of supermarket group Asda, the company had made a push into Western Europe with entry into markets including Spain and Italy in recent years.
“It has been wonderful to help the business and our many talented colleagues grow and provide customers with great value products that they need throughout Europe and the UK,” Bond said in a statement.
“As I step down, I do it in the knowledge that the business is in great shape with a clear growth strategy, a fantastic team and a strong board. I wish everyone well in the future,” he said.
Steinhoff holds 79% of Pepco, which contributes about 45% to group revenue. Steinhoff had raised approximately €1bn (R17bn) through Pepco’s listing in 2021, most of which was used to reduce debt.
In morning trade on the JSE on Wednesday, Steinhoff’s shares were trading 2.04% lower at R4.79, although this is not an unusually large move for the group.
Steinhoff, valued at R20.2bn, has seen its shares more than quadruple over the past year as it made progress in pursuing a global settlement process to remove the threat of lawsuits stemming from its accounting scandal.
The group’s shares had surged a quarter on December 28 when it said it had reached settlements with the former owners of shoe retailer Tekkie Town and Mauritius-based Trevo Capital.
This has paved the way for the group to put about two years of legal wrangling behind it.
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