Madrid – Trevor Masters was, until recently, and since 31 March 2022, executive director of the Polish multinational fashion and lifestyle company, Pepco Group, known as “Primark Poland” from its role as parent company of Pepco and Dealz chains in Europe and Poundland in the UK , suddenly submitted his resignation to the Group’s board of directors. The accepted resignation, which led to his departure from the company, was announced by the same management, “with immediate effect.”

The move, confirmed by the same Pepco Group management on Tuesday, September 12, was accompanied by a downward revision of the forecast guidance that the company had maintained for the current fiscal year in fiscal 2023, which will close the year. coming September 30th. These are the results that will provide the first estimates on October 12, before the final publication of the official results scheduled to end on December 12 2023. A period during which, and when a new executive director is appointed to lead the multinational business, the Pepco Group will be handed over to Andy Bond, the current president of the board of directors of the Pepco Group, and who has filled the void created among its executives by the departure of Masters, who served as the new interim CEO of the Polish multinational. According to management, Bond will temporarily serve as CEO, leading the company’s executive team and carrying out general management of the company, until the inauguration and appointment of a new executive director. .

“We would like to thank Trevor for his recent leadership as Group CEO, and previously as CEO of Pepco in Poland,” said Andy Bond, the Group’s new interim CEO, on behalf of the company. board of directors, through a statement announced by its management. From his position, he added, Masters “has provided leadership over the past several years, and the business is well-poised for its future growth,” so “we wish him the best.” Meanwhile, “I am very excited to once again take an active role in the management of the Pepco Group, providing continuity for a wonderful company that feels like a family, and one I have enjoyed being involved with since 2012,” he added Bond himself, in reference to his new appointment as interim CEO of Pepco Group.

Update your forecast guide to the bottom

Complementing this news, and in line with what has been indicated at the beginning of this line, the same Pepco Group management has used this announcement to communicate that it will make a downward adjustment to the forecast guidance made for this. the current fiscal year is 2023. The year coincides with the publication of the results collected by the company during the first quarter of the year on January 12, presented as a guide to the estimate of closing the year with an increase of almost + 10 percent of its Ebitda. The estimate they ultimately provided was corrected, now forward that the same indicator is expected to be “slightly lower than previously indicated”, although this is “in line with analysts’ analysis compiled by the company”. This was an amendment they said they had made in response to weaker-than-expected sales performance.

Despite the “cooling” that, compared to their own estimates, the company will experience in billing levels during the latter part of the 2023 fiscal year, Pepco Group management remains firm on expansion and growth. saved plans for the same period. A roadmap in which they continue to maintain the goal of closing the year by accumulating up to 550 net new openings, carried out only during the last year, thus continuing the ambitious expansion strategy launched by the company in recent years. An attack that they have practiced end-to-end throughout Europe, which they are also considering closing the year by reaching up to 200 active sales points between Spain and Portugal, while they completed the landing in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the first Pepco store that has just opened its doors, this September 12, in Sarajevo, the country’s capital, and announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire 71 stores in the UK that until now were operated by the British chain Wilko. Some of the companies, they detailed, will become part of the network of more than 800 points of sale that the Group operates in the country under the umbrella of the Poundland brand, with the view that they can start offering the chain’s product offerings. the same fall campaign, and even before the close of the 2023 fiscal year.