Masters confirmed as permanent Pepco CEO

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Apr 22, 2022

Pan-European variety budget retailer Pepco Group has promoted Trevor Masters to CEO, effective immediately. He has been acting interim CEO since February and replaces long-standing CEO Andy Bond who stepped down in March for health reasons.

Despite conducting an extensive search process, the board concluded Masters was “the outstanding candidate for the role”.
 
He has already been instrumental to the group’s continuing success having led Pepco, the group’s largest and fastest growing brand, since he joined the group in November 2019.

He has 40 years’ experience within the retail sector, both within the UK and internationally, and significant executive expertise having served as the chief executive of Tesco International for seven years and in various operational roles within the UK for the supermarket giant.
 
Separately, Nick Wharton is to step down as Pepco Group chief financial officer at the end of April, citing continued health issues.
 
Wharton joined Pepco as CFO in 2018 and played a key role in the group’s flotation on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in May 2021. He will remain an advisor to the board until the end of the financial year.
 
In the meantime, the company has appointed Mat Ankers as the Interim Group CFO while it commences an internal and external search process for a new CFO. He undertook the position of interim CFO during Wharton’s initial period of ill health in 2021.
 
Masters said of his appointment: “We have a clear strategy and a significant growth plan that we are successfully executing against. Our business is about delivering great value and choice for our consumers day in, day out. I very much look forward to working with our talented colleagues across the business to ensure that we continue to deliver for customers and shareholders alike.”
 
Chairman Richard Burrows added: “In his three years with the group to date, Trevor has demonstrated exceptional leadership in driving growth at our Pepco business, opening stores across our established markets and strategically important new ones in Western Europe.”