Hot on the heels of its supply chain problems last year, SuperGroup’s maths errors have produced more worrying signs that the retailer has not yet got its house in order.

A series of errors and forecasting mistakes have led to a shock profit warning, with the retailer now expecting to make £43m in full year group pretax profit rather than the £50m previously expected.

It seems its new chief financial officer Shaun Wills, who joins on April 23, will have a bit of a job on his hands. After years of growing at a pace that has now proven to be too fast for the operational part of the business to keep up, Wills’ is starting not a moment too soon – in fact, probably a few moments too late.

He will need to bring a degree of rigour and discipline to the financial side of a business that has struggled to keep pace with demand - for the trendy Superdry brand in particular. The operational side will also hopefully move up a gear once his fellow new starter, former John Lewis chief operating officer Susanne Given, has settled in after joining this month.

But at least, analysts say, SuperGroup is doing something about its problems – these are obviously issues it knows it needs to get control of. “What’s different about these appointments is they’re not home grown,” says Panmure analyst Jean Roche. “It should add financial rigour and challenge existing methodologies.”

It’s perhaps unfortunate that Wills and Given have only joined now, says Verdict analyst Maureen Hinton. “The kind of skills you need when you start a business are the skills you need as it matures and grows, and they’ve recognised that,” says Hinton. “It’s just unfortunate that these financial issues arose before those people became embedded in the business.”

SuperGroup will no doubt pick itself back up - after all, its like-for-likes surged 9.3% in December - but if there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s to act on these niggles before they get to the stage of profit warnings and slumping share prices.

Topics