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Simon Arora
Businessperson, CEO of B&M (born 1969) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Simon Arora (born November 1969) is a British billionaire businessman, and former CEO of the retail chain B&M. [1]
Early life
Simon Arora was born in November 1969 to Indian parents.[2][3] His businessman father had immigrated to the UK from Delhi in the 1960s.[4] He studied law at Cambridge University and worked at his father's cash and carry.[5]
Career
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Arora worked as an analyst for McKinsey, 3i and Barclays.[5]
In 1995, he went into business with his younger brother Bobby Arora, importing homewares from Asia and supplying them to UK retail chains, before buying B&M in 2004, which was then a struggling grocery chain based in Blackpool.[5]
In 2017, Simon and Bobby Arora cashed in £215m of shares and reduced their stake in B&M by a quarter, three years after taking it public.[6]
As of May 2019, the Arora brothers (Simon, Bobby and Robin) jointly have a net worth of £2.26 billion.[7]
Arora stepped down as CEO of B&M in September 2022 following 17 years in the role. He remains an executive director at the company.[8]
Covid-19 rates relief
In March 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave business rates relief and furlough payments to businesses in the hospitality and retail sectors.[9][10] B&M was among several businesses classified as 'essential retailers' and as a result was allowed to remain open when other 'non-essential' businesses had to close.[11][12] In November 2020, B&M and other retailers were subject to a public outcry for having not handed back payments totalling £1.8 billion intended for propping up retailers prevented from trading due to restrictions, despite making record profits.[13] The retailer declared £296m in profit and as a result issued a £250m special dividend despite having received £38m in business rates relief and £3.7m in furlough payments.[13][14] The Arora brothers received a combined total of £37m of the special dividend due to their 15% shareholding, which was said to be worth at least £750m.[14][11] The firm agreed to pay £80m in business rate relief it had saved, a move mirrored by major supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.[12]
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Personal life
He is married to Shalni Arora, who has a Natural Sciences degree from Cambridge University, and was a co-founder of bio-tech business DxS.[15] They have two daughters.[16]
Arora lives in Hale Barns near Altrincham, next door to his brother Bobby.[17] Arora owns three of the flats at 3–10 Grosvenor Crescent, a Grade II* listed terrace in London's Belgravia district, where he unsuccessfully opposed a legal dispute about concierge services in 2017.[18]
Arora donated £50,000 to the Conservative Party in early 2020.[19]
References
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