Bankrupt chief of finance quits Superdry owner
SUPERGROUP’S finance chief Shaun Wills left his £475,000 job yesterday after admitting to the company that he had been declared personally bankrupt.
Wills, a chartered accountant who joined the owner of the Superdry fashion brand in 2012, is understood to have been caught in a row with HM Revenue & Customs over an unpaid tax bill.
HMRC obtained a personal bankruptcy order against him on 10 February. The hearing at the High Court had been delayed and was originally scheduled for 28 November.
Wills concealed the fact he had been made bankrupt until Monday, when he told the Supergroup board, and it was decided he would step down.
Nick Wharton, the former chief executive of homewares retailer Dunelm, has replaced Wills on an interim basis.
He is understood to be on close terms with Supergroup’s chief executive Euan Sutherland and agreed to step in after receiving a call from Sutherland on Monday following the news.
Wills’ exit spells further upheaval for the retailer, which lost its chief operating officer Susanne Given last month. “The timing of this news could not be worse,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Freddie George said.
Wills, who held senior roles at Habitat and New Look, took home a £250,000 salary and £225,000 bonus last year.
He lives in a Grade II-listed house near Supergroup’s offices in Cheltenham, which he bought from the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall two years ago for £1.3m.