Former Superdry and M&S finance boss to join Poundland as CFO

Former Superdry CFO Shaun Wills, is joining UK discount retailer Poundland as its new Chief Finance Officer.

Wills, who will start in his new role in July, looks back at a career spanning 25 years across commercial and financial roles across retail businesses.

He joins Poundland from the De Beers Group, where he has been Finance Chief since 2024. Prior to this, he held the CFO role at Superdry twice, from 2012 to 2015 and again from 2021 to 2024. Between those two stints he served as Finance Director for Clothing and Home at Marks & Spencer from 2018 to 2021.

In his LinkedIn profile he highlights that while his specialism remains in finance, he has also led up e-commerce, IT, logistics, strategy and business development, as well as merchandising functions. 

"This has given me broad experience in running the various elements of a business and helps me bring a rare level of commercial understanding to the CFO role," Wills said. 

His career in retail commenced in the 1990s, where he worked in various roles at Debenhams, New Look, Fat Face and Habitat.

Poundland's turnaround context

After Poundland was sold by Pepco Group to investment firm Gordon Brothers in June 2025, the retailer went through a major restructuring that involved the closure of scores of stores and the loss of around 2,200 jobs.

The company has said the large-scale closure programme is now over, with any future exits expected to be routine lease-driven departures typical of a large store network.

Trading across 600 stores across the UK and Ireland, Poundland has also been rebuilding its Pep&Co clothing offer, which is now available across around 450 of these locations. 

Around 90% of the new Pep&Co range is priced below £10, with much of it below £5.

All adult clothing has now reverted to Pep&Co branding with in-house design, and new kids' and baby ranges have launched at lower price points.

The clothing rebuild comes amid a mixed trading picture. Christmas-quarter like-for-like underlying sales fell 2.9%, though comparable store sales by volume rose 2%. First-quarter underlying earnings rose £8.4 million to £17.3 million.

Poundland Managing Director Barry Williams commented at the time that the business still has "much to do" despite progress made since the ownership change.

"Our focus on our costs has, without doubt, given us a platform for future growth, but no sustainable turnaround can be based on cost management alone.

"That’s why our focus in 2026 will be on delivering the kind of ranges and price simplicity our customers want right across the store – in clothing, homewares, as well as our core grocery aisles," he added.