Super Retail Group, which owns Rebel Sport and Supercheap Auto has looked inside the company for a replacement for the long-standing CEO, Peter Birtles, who is about to retire.
Super Retail Group says Anthony Heraghty, who runs the company’s BCF (Boating, Camping, Fishing), Rays and Macpac chains, will become CEO at the end of March.
The BCF chains have been the weak point for Super Retail in recent years but the losses seem to have been stemmed and last year’s purchase of the Macpac group in New Zealand seems to have helped that improvement.
Mr. Heraghty helped drive the acquisition of Macpac which is now being merged with its existing camping supplies chain Rays. That probably helped win him the CEO role.
Mr. Birtles has been CEO at the group for the past 13 years and announced his retirement last October.
With no successor in place, that announcement spooked investors and sent its shares plunging 21% in a week, from $9.35 to $7.38.
The stock has slid further since then on fears of a slide in retailing over the Christmas-New Year break, and on Monday closed at $6.90.
The news of the new CEO’s naming halted that slide yesterday and the shares bounced more than 2.7% to $7.09 in a market that weakened all day.
Super Retail chair Sally Pitkin said a global search had identified a number of candidates, but it had been decided that Mr. Heraghty was best placed to “lead the next era of growth for the Super Retail Group”.
“Anthony is a trusted and respected leader with a track record of delivering improved business performance, coupled with an absolute commitment to and understanding of customer needs,” she said in a statement.
Mr. Heraghty joined Super Retail in 2015. He previously held senior roles at Bonds’ owner Pacific Brands, and oversaw the evolution of the iconic underwear brand from a wholesale operation to a direct-to-consumer retail business.
Prior to that, he was the global marketing director at Foster’s Group.
“With changing customer expectations, we are being challenged to innovate and modernise our business to ensure we are fit to compete in the even more competitive retail environment of tomorrow,” Mr. Heraghty said.
Mr. Heraghty will take a slight pay cut from his predecessor, with a base salary of $1 million a year compared to Mr. Birtles’ $1.23 million, with annual short- and long-term bonuses of up to $1.6 million.
Mr. Birtles will stay on to present the group’s first-half results next month.
