The new chief executive of Poundstretcher has shared with BusinessLive how excited he is about plans to grow the store estate, modernise the business and make the customer experience better than ever. Outlining the discount chain’s plans for the year ahead Tristan Phillips said it had come through its recent pre-pack administration in good shape – back in growth after offloading high rent, historic stores.
Mr Phillips has taken the top job having joined Poundstretcher as its finance director back in the autumn of 2022. He said the past year at the head office just outside Leicester, had helped him build a good relationship with its owner Aziz Tayub and given him a solid understanding of what the business needs to take it forward.
The 41-year-old dad-of-two came to Poundstretcher having held senior finance roles in Marks and Spencers – where he was head of commercial finance in the food division – O2 and Groupon. Prior to that he spent a decade with brewing giant SABMiller, working in Russia, Switzerland and Australia as well as the UK.
Poundstretcher’s turnover went from £325 million to £273 million during the CVA – partly the result of fewer stores – with profits also down, but the arrangement helped the business keep trading and saw it retained by owner Aziz Tayub and his family.
Today there are 316 stores and about 4,000 people on the payroll. The company’s 800,000 sq ft warehouse in west Leicestershire has potential to supply 600 shops.
Mr Phillips said: “One of the reasons Aziz asked me to take on this role is that we’ve worked together for 12 months and we’ve formed an exceptionally positive personal relationship and working relationship.
“I think that, based on what I’ve delivered as a CFO, he feels I would be a really good fit to work alongside him, to lead the business.
“He’s worked exceptionally hard and grown an incredibly successful business, and we’re aligned on strategy, we know how we work together and I know the things that are important to him – the things that he doesn’t want to happen and the things he does.
“I think that, versus someone coming in and thinking they’ve got to change everything tomorrow, I’ve had a good runway into what I need to do and had agreed all of that before I stepped into the CEO role.
“Aziz feels it’s the right time for someone to step up and feels I’m the right person.”
Mr Phillips said the chain’s immediate plans include opening a number of new stores, including taking on a number of former Wilko branches. It is the first time the new boss has spoken about the plans and its discussions with Wilko’s administrators.
He said: “Between now and the end of our financial year in March we’ll be opening at least 20 new stores all over the country.
“We’re a big believer in the high street and it’s a great opportunity for us to support their rejuvenation. If out of town opportunities present themselves we obviously look at them but we really believe in smaller, regional towns with busy high streets that are actually starting to thrive a bit more. We can play a really active role in the community in those towns, with about six or seven jobs per store.
“Some of the stores that we are opening will be ex-Wilkos. We were involved throughout the process, spoke to the administrator and evaluated the whole portfolio – and the best approach for us was about selecting the stores that work.
“Huge format stores don’t work for Poundstretcher – they are not right for us. But there’s a number of stores that we think are interesting and we’ve clearly got a proposition that a number of landlords are interested in.”
He said there were plenty of potential Wilko stores that they could take on, and a reasonable number of the 20 would be ex-Wilko – including one that opened in Allenton, Derby on Monday.
As well as store openings he wants to smarten up the store estate to make the shopping experience better, and improving stocks of FMCG (so-called Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) – those popular household and food items that sell quickly and relatively cheaply.
Mr Phillips said: “The last 12 months have been a tale of two halves [for Poundstretcher] with significant promotional activity in the first half of the year. But the challenges of global supply chains led to a shortage of stock in stores and that meant we had a really challenging first six months from a profitability perspective.
“But the second half of the year was exceptionally positive and we recovered. So our profits did drop but actually we were still very profitable.
“We’re still being impacted by the CVA and will continue to close a few stores but are now on a positive progression and starting to grow the store estate.
“At the end of last year we had 324 stores, which was less than the year before, and the number has continued to decline into this year, but now we are starting to grow again.
“It’s a really positive story from the CVA perspective, and it enabled the business to restructure. It did have some negative consequences for us and certain suppliers and landlords, but ultimately everyone is better off on the back of it because the business is now profitable and in a position to return to growth.
“We now really want to bring the business back to being a bit more commercial, work on optimising the stores and optimising our ranges.
“The business now has the infrastructure and capability to operate a bigger store portfolio and we think we can do a great job for customers in many more locations.
“We’ve got to modernise the business. A lot of it is about fixing fundamentals of things where we’re not as good as we could be. We want to help our staff be more effective at giving great value and great service to our customers – and obviously drive value into the business as well.
“It’s about the right stock at the right price in the right place at the right time.
“We’ve invested millions of pounds in new infrastructure and the supply chain, we’ve brought in talent to help us get better, we will invest in the look and feel of our stores – making them tidier, making them cleaner, and driving a culture of customer-focussed, great value retailing.”
