Former Temple & Webster (T&W) chief marketing officer Susie Sugden has returned to the company as its CEO, with the co-founder and former CEO of the homeware retailer, Mark Coulter, moving into the role of executive chair.

Sugden ended her four-and-a-half-year tenure at T&W in August 2020. Since then, she served as CEO of retailer Love To Dream, before landing a role as MD at healthcare investment firm, Genesis Capital.

She returns to T&W after former CEO Coulter told investors in February that his aim was to “grow revenue and take market share as fast as we can”.

“We are not managing the business for profitability at this point in the cycle. I think that’s really important to understand,” CFO Cam Barnsley added at the time.

Despite showing progress with this goal – T&W grew sales by nearly 20 per cent in the first-half of the fiscal year – the stock market reacted with caution.

A single-day, 32.6 per cent drop on the ASX followed after Coulter and Barnsley’s words in February; its share price is now down by 41 per cent since its February peak.

“My focus will be on driving operational excellence and continuing to scale the business to meet the evolving needs of our customers. I look forward to working with Mark once again and leading this incredible team to deliver sustained, long-term growth,” Sugden said. 

The leadership changes will be effective from July 1, T&W added.

“I am so proud of everything we have achieved at Temple & Webster,” Coulter said. “We have navigated the early start-up years, public market turbulence, global pandemics and cost of living crises, to firmly become one of the most successful e-commerce businesses in Australia.”

In further changes at the company, current company chair Stephen Heath will become lead independent director, co-founder Conrad Yiu will replace him as chair.