Pets at Home and new finance chief Graeme Jenkins part ways after Australia’s Wesfarmers admits to accounting errors at his former firm Target
Pets at Home said that its incoming chief financial officer Graeme Jenkins will no longer be taking up the role after his former employer Wesfarmers this morning admitted to accounting errors at its Target Australia subsidiary where Jenkins was previously finance chief.
The Australian conglomerate said that a probe into Target's accounting practices found that first-half profits at the department store had been falsely inflated by around A$21m (£11.1m) by extra rebates from some 30 suppliers in return for promises of price rises in the second half.
The company, which recently bought Homebase in the UK, said "appropriate action is being taken against the Target employees who were found to be directly involved". Target's managing director Stuart Machin has stepped down along with three other senior executives.
Wesfarmers did not name the employees or say what action it would be taking. However, the Financial Times reported that when asked about Jenkins, managing director Richard Goyder said: "If Graeme wasn’t aware he should have been aware and, as I said, he resigned late last year.”
Pets at Home said Jenkins, who was due to join on 4 April, will no longer be joining the retailer by "mutual agreement". It has started a search process for a new chief financial officer and has appointed Mark Adams on an interim basis.
Adams has held senior finance roles at a number of companies including Hastings Insurance and easyJet. He has acted as an interim CFO to Cognita Schools since February 2014.