Euan Sutherland is a Scottish businessman who was the Chief Executive of SuperGroup plc which owns the

Superdry Superdry plc (stylised as SUPERDRY®︎冒険魂) is a UK branded clothing company, and owner of the Superdry label. Superdry products combine vintage American styling with Japanese-inspired graphics. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

chain of clothing shops. On 11 December 2019 it was announced he will take over as CEO of the over-50s insurance company, Saga. He took up his role on 6 January 2020.

Career

After training in marketing with

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...

, he worked in marketing a retail management positions with Mars Confectionery,

Matalan Matalan is a British fashion and homeware retailer based in Knowsley, Merseyside. It was established by John Hargreaves in 1985, and is still owned by the Hargreaves family. , the company employed over 13,000, and had 230 stores in the United K ...

Currys Currys (branded as Currys PC World between 2010 and 2021) is an electrical retailer and aftercare service provider operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, specialising in white goods, consumer electronics, computers and mobile phones. E ...

and Superdrug. He then joined

Kingfisher plc Kingfisher plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational retailing company headquartered in London, England. It has over 1,300 stores in nine countries, and its brands include B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt and Screwfix. Kingfisher i ...

, rising to the position of chief operating officer.

Co-operative Group

Touted as a replacement for Kingfisher CEO Ian Cheshire, he joined the Co-operative Group in April 2013, taking over from Peter Marks as chief executive. Due to inadequate capital levels in its banking group,

Moody's Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides internationa ...

downgraded the bank's

credit rating A credit rating is an evaluation of the credit risk of a prospective debtor (an individual, a business, company or a government), predicting their ability to pay back the debt, and an implicit forecast of the likelihood of the debtor defaulting. ...

by six notches to junk status (Ba3) and the bank's chief executive Barry Tootell resigned. The difficulties stemmed largely from the commercial loans of the

Britannia Building Society The Britannia Building Society was founded as the Leek & Moorlands Building Society in Leek in 1856. It expanded steadily as a regional society until the late 1950s when it began a major expansion drive, partly through branch openings but also so ...

, acquired in the 2009 merger. Sutherland restructured, by intending to sell the life insurance business to Royal London releasing about £200m in capital, and planning to dispose of its other insurance business. On 5 June Richard Pennycook, former finance director of

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...

, was named Co-operative Group's finance director, and Richard Pym, former chief executive of the

Alliance & Leicester Alliance & Leicester plc was a British bank and former building society, formed by the merger in 1985 of the Alliance Building Society and the Leicester Building Society. The business demutualised in the middle of 1997, when it was floated o ...

bank, as chair of the Co-operative Banking Group and the Co-operative Bank. In March 2014, Sutherland resigned from The Co-operative because he said "I now feel that until the Group adopts professional and commercial governance it will be impossible to implement what my team and I believe are the necessary changes and reforms to renew the Group and give it a relevant and sustainable future". He was replaced by

Richard Pennycook Richard John Pennycook (born February 1964) was chief executive officer of the Co-operative Group. Pennycook took the position as CEO in 2014 after being named Chief Financial Officer in 2013. In 2013, he became Chairman of The Hut Group, an ...

, then chief financial officer, who became the group's interim Chief Executive.

Supergroup

On 22 October 2014, it was announced that Sutherland was CEO of SuperGroup plc. On 2 April 2019, Sutherland resigned as CEO of SuperGroup plc after founder

Julian Dunkerton Julian Marc Dunkerton (born March 1965) is a British businessman, and the co-founder of the fashion label Superdry. Early life Dunkerton's father Ivor and stepmother Susie founded and ran Dunkertons Organic Cider. Dunkerton moved to Herefordsh ...

won a bid to be reinstated to the SuperGroup plc board.

Saga

In December 2019, Saga employs Euan Sutherland, longtime leader of Superdry and Co-op, as chief executive. At a crucial moment he joined with Saga. The insurance firm, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the group 's earnings, has needed to dramatically slash premiums to stay profitable. Whereas the travel company is preparing to introduce two freshly built cruise ships.

Personal life

Sutherland is married with three sons. His interests include

Rugby Union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

and

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutherland, Euan Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Scottish businesspeople 1969 births