Shake-up at the top for billionaire-backed budget retailer

The chief executive of Best & Less has left after nine months in the role, marking the second chief executive appointment for the budget retailer that has been aborted early.

Aaron Faraguna, a former chief executive at JD Sports and chief operating officer at David Jones, was appointed to the top job in January but has decided to leave the business, the company has confirmed after inquiries from this masthead.

“Aaron Faraguna recently tendered his resignation as chief executive officer of Best & Less,” the company said in a statement.

“At this time, Ray Itaoui, executive chairman of Best & Less Group, has assumed the day-to-day responsibilities of Best & Less to maintain business continuity.”

Faraguna would continue to be available to ensure a smooth handover, the spokesperson said.

The retail executive announced his appointment as Best & Less chief executive on LinkedIn in January, where he thanked Itaoui for “believing in me and offering this exciting opportunity to lead such a talented and passionate team”.

Best & Less was founded in 1965 and has more than 200 stores across the country. The clothing and homewares retailer is co-owned by Itaoui, who became chief executive of Sanity in 2007 and bought it two years later, along with billionaire businessman Brett Blundy.

Itaoui lured Faraguna to Best & Less from sneaker chain JD Sports, reconnecting with Faraguna decades after the latter got his start in retail at Sanity in 1999. Earlier this year, Itaoui said Faraguna was “exactly what we are looking for”.

“He has that energy we need,” Itaoui told The Australian Financial Review in March.

Before Faraguna’s appointment, Best & Less announced in April 2023 that former The Iconic boss Erica Berchtold would be joining as its incoming chief executive.

But by May, Itaoui and Blundy had made a takeover bid for the discount fashion retailer.

In late June, months before Berchtold was due to begin in September, Best & Less said it and Berchtold had “agreed not to proceed with her appointment” and that Itaoui would instead assume the responsibilities.

In July 2023, Itaoui and Blundy delisted Best & Less from the ASX, privatising the company two years after it floated.

“I knew some of the directors, it was a publicly listed company. I thought, OK, I’m going to go for this,” Berchtold told Australian businessman Mark Bouris in an August 2023 episode of his podcast, The Mentor.

“I resigned, I quit my job, I signed up. I wasn’t allowed to start straight away [and] that was fine, I really wanted to do the right thing by The Iconic and see out my notice period,” Berchtold told Bouris.

“During that notice period ...that company got bought out, privatised and actually the role I wanted, the role I signed up for, was no longer going to be the role that was there. That role just wasn’t there any more.”

Itaoui owns Best & Less alongside Brett Blundy, who also founded Lovisa and owns a 40 per cent stake in Dissh.

A spokesperson for Best & Less declined to respond to further questions and said Itaoui was unavailable for interview.

In the 12 months to June 30, 2024, the clothing and homewares retailer’s sales declined 2.2 per cent to $625.1 million, but net profits nearly doubled to $17.5 million from $9.1 million in 2023, according to the company’s most recent financial report filed to the corporate regulator.

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