Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL) shares are tumbling today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) retail conglomerate – whose brands include Supercheap Auto, Rebel, BCF, and Macpac – closed yesterday trading for $17.26. In morning trade on Tuesday, shares are changing hands for $16.38 apiece, down 5.1%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is up 0.2% at this same time.
This underperformance follows a bombshell announcement on the company's managing director and chief financial officer.
Image source: Getty Images
ASX 200 retailer gives the boot to CEO
Super Retail shares are under selling pressure after ASX investors tuned in this morning to learn that the company has sacked managing director and CEO Anthony Heraghty with immediate effect.
As you may be aware, Heraghty has drawn a lot of unwanted attention to both his personal life and the company over his alleged affair with the company's former HR chief officer, Jane Kelly.
The Super Retail board said this morning that it decided to terminate Heraghty's employment after receiving new information from him about that relationship.
"In light of this new information, the board has concluded Mr Heraghty's prior disclosures were not satisfactory," the board stated. The directors added that they will carefully consider the implications this may have for the company and any related matters.
The board also revealed that it has exercised its discretion to lapse Heraghty's incentives, which include all unvested incentives and vested but unexercised rights.
For the immediate future, Super Retail shares will rely more heavily on the direction from chief financial officer David Burns, who has been appointed interim CEO.
The company will now undertake a search for Heraghty's permanent replacement.
How have Super Retail shares been performing?
Having struggled for much of the past 12 months, Super Retail shares engineered a strong comeback alongside the broader market rebound in early April.
Indeed, shares closed up 12.3% on 21 August following the release of the company's FY 2025 results.
Highlights from the financial year included a 4.5% year-on-year increase in sales to $4.1 billion. Online sales were a particularly strong result, up 8% to $524 million and now representing 13% of total sales.
Profits went the other way, however, with the company's normalised net profit after tax (NPAT) down 4% from FY 2024 to $232 million.
Still, the company pleases passive income investors, with management declaring a fully franked dividend of 64 cents per share. That's set to be paid out on 16 October,
With today's intraday fall factored in, Super Retail shares are down 7.0% over 12 months (not including dividends), but still up 33% since the recent 7 April lows.
