B&M Names Asda’s Atheeq Akbar as CFO — CEO Today

B&M European Value Retail has appointed Asda executive Atheeq Akbar as its new chief financial officer, ending an extended period of instability in the role that began with an accounting error and a series of profit warnings. Announced on 24 June 2026, the appointment takes effect in February 2027, with Akbar joining from his position as vice president of commercial finance at Asda to become the FTSE 250 discount retailer’s first permanent finance chief since late last year.

Akbar arrives with a career rooted in UK retail finance. Before Asda he led the retail and manufacturing finance functions at Morrisons, becoming a finance director in 2021, and earlier held senior finance roles at Tesco as well as international experience at Etihad Airways. A chartered accountant who began his career at Deloitte and is a member of the ICAEW, he takes a role that will be his first as a public-company CFO. His remuneration package comprises a base salary of £525,000, a maximum annual bonus of 175% of salary with half deferred into shares, and a maximum long-term incentive award of a further 175% of base.

The appointment closes a turbulent chapter for B&M’s finance function. The retailer’s previous permanent CFO, Mike Schmidt, resigned in late 2025 after an accounting error in which around £7 million of overseas freight costs were incorrectly recorded in the cost of goods sold, forcing the company to downgrade its 2026 profit guidance and prompting analysts to question the strength of its financial controls. Helen Cowling joined as interim CFO in November 2025 but departed the following April after a second profit warning in January, leaving group financial controller Peter Waterhouse to step in on a temporary basis — a role he will retain until Akbar formally joins in 2027.

The hire is central to the turnaround the company is attempting. Chief executive Tjeerd Jegen, who launched a “Back to B&M Basics” recovery plan in late 2025 as the discounter contended with intensifying competition from supermarket loyalty schemes and pressure on lower-income household budgets, described securing the right CFO as a key priority of recent months and said Akbar’s commercial retail background would help deepen the financial foundations of the business. Akbar, for his part, pointed to the considerable opportunity in UK value retail and the leadership role B&M can play in it.

Bringing in an external finance chief after a run of internal disruption reflects a board seeking to draw a line under the controls failures that cost B&M its previous CFO and dented investor confidence. The decision to recruit from a direct grocery competitor, rather than promote internally or look outside the sector, points to a preference for sector-specific commercial expertise at a moment when the priority is restoring financial discipline and credibility rather than reinventing the business. The accounting error and the churn that followed had become a governance concern in their own right, and a permanent, experienced appointment is the clearest signal the board can give that the finance function is being stabilised.

One complication is timing: Akbar will not join until February 2027, leaving Waterhouse to lead the finance function on an interim basis for a further eight months at a delicate stage of the turnaround. B&M’s shares are up around 14% so far this year but remain down roughly a third over the past twelve months, and the company beat annual pre-tax profit expectations earlier in June as its recovery efforts gained some traction. Whether Akbar can accelerate that progress once he arrives, and rebuild confidence in the financial controls that failed under his predecessor, will determine how far this appointment helps return B&M to the like-for-like sales growth its turnaround is designed to deliver.