Interesting story ...6 Jul 2014 09:52
... in The Telegraph:
The Poundland chief executive has transformed the business, but it was family illness that first brought him to the retailer.
Jim McCarthy considers the answer. As he does so, his eyes gradually fill with tears, and a lump develops in his throat. It is rare to see a chief executive emotional, even more so when he is talking about the reasons he joined the company he now runs.
But for McCarthy, his arrival at Poundland in 2006 was a poignant moment. McCarthy had been running Sainsbury’s convenience store business and overseeing its rapid growth. However, a series of family bereavements and illnesses led to him reconsidering his work-life balance.
He decided to leave Sainsbury’s and head back to the Midlands where his family lived. He accepted an offer to become chief executive at Poundland, based in Wolverhampton.
“I have to be honest, the only reason I left Sainsbury’s was family illnesses. It was an awful time. You couldn’t write the story,” he recalls, the emotion growing.
“For the first time in my life, I put my family first.”
McCarthy went from being one of Justin King’s key lieutenants to running a small chain of pound shops.
Poundland was founded in 1990 by Steve Smith, but by 2006 its growth was stalling.
Under McCarthy, the company has been transformed, with an estate of almost 550 stores, and sales in the year to March of £997.8m. He now has aspirations to expand to 1,000 shops across the UK and Ireland, and has just opened Poundland’s first store in Spain.
The icing on the cake was the company’s successful stock market flotation earlier this year, when Poundland’s private equity owner Warburg Pincus and 155 members of the management team sold shares.
The float valued Poundland at £750m, with McCarthy himself banking almost £2m from selling down part of his stake. “I got lucky,” McCarthy says of his decision to join Poundland. “I didn’t realise what a gem it was.”
Since the float, Poundland’s shares have performed strongly, up nearly 13pc on their 300p initial public offer price.
Although Poundland may not seek to offer a weekly shop with its at-times-unusual lines of stock, it is having an impact on the supermarkets that do.
As a result, McCarthy says suppliers are looking to do more work with Poundland. “We get support from suppliers, and we are direct with virtually any supplier of any standing in the UK. Why wouldn’t that continue to be the case?
Poundland now works with 1,000 suppliers, compared with 700 when McCarthy joined, and this increased support from manufacturers is helping to put the discount retailer into a virtuous circle that will drive further growth.
The company has begun expansion into Europe and is also preparing to move online.
The launch of an online service will be the latest example of how Poundland has grown
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