Director of Property Services & Sustainability for Poundland & Dealz

Background

Poundland & Dealz is one of Europe's leading value retailers, operating an extensive portfolio of stores across the UK and Ireland. With a continued focus on growth, operational efficiency and environmental responsibility, the business needed a senior property leader to oversee its property services function while driving sustainability initiatives across the estate.

To support those objectives, Poundland & Dealz engaged Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Director of Property Services and Sustainability: a strategically important appointment responsible for store development, facilities management, procurement, utilities, waste management and environmental performance.

The Challenge

This was a specialised leadership role. The successful candidate would oversee a large and complex retail property portfolio while embedding sustainability into every stage of the property lifecycle, which meant combining commercial acumen, strategic property expertise and facilities management leadership with a strong track record in environmental sustainability. Key responsibilities included:

• Leading the Property Services and Facilities Management function across the retail estate
• Overseeing new store developments, refurbishments and fit-out programmes
• Driving operational efficiency across facilities, maintenance, utilities and waste services
• Managing procurement strategies and supplier performance
• Delivering sustainability initiatives and environmental improvement programmes
• Reducing operational costs while maintaining high service standards
• Supporting compliance, governance and risk management objectives
• Aligning property strategy with wider business growth plans

The difficulty with a brief like this is that the two halves can pull in different directions. Value retail runs its estate on tight cost discipline; sustainability programmes need investment and a longer payback horizon. The appointment needed a leader who could hold both, balancing day-to-day operational performance with a longer-term strategic view.

Our Approach

Understanding the brief

Maxwell Stephens worked closely with the Poundland & Dealz leadership team to build a thorough understanding of the organisation's property strategy, sustainability objectives and operational priorities. Particular focus went on candidates with experience across retail property and estate management, facilities management leadership, store development and capital projects, procurement and supplier management, sustainability and ESG initiatives, multi-site operational environments, and budget and commercial management.

Targeted executive search

Using our facilities management and property network, we ran a targeted search for senior leaders with proven experience of managing large-scale retail estates. We focused on candidates who demonstrated:

• Strategic property leadership capability
• Strong facilities management expertise
• Experience delivering sustainability programmes
• Commercial and financial acumen
• Strong supplier and contract management
• A track record of driving operational efficiencies across complex portfolios

Assessment

Each candidate went through a comprehensive evaluation covering technical competence and cultural alignment. The key areas of assessment were property and estate strategy, facilities management leadership, sustainability achievements, procurement and commercial performance, change management capability, and stakeholder engagement and leadership style.

The Outcome

Following an extensive search, Maxwell Stephens appointed a highly experienced Director of Property Services and Sustainability with a strong track record across the retail sector. The successful candidate brought more than a decade of experience leading property, facilities and sustainability functions within complex multi-site environments, and quickly established themselves as a key member of the senior leadership team.

Since the appointment, the new Director has:

• Improved sustainability performance. Introduced a range of initiatives to reduce waste, improve environmental performance and increase energy efficiency across the estate, supporting the organisation's long-term sustainability goals.
• Strengthened facilities management operations. Tightened supplier performance frameworks and introduced operational improvements, so that facilities services are delivered more consistently and efficiently across the portfolio.
• Streamlined store development. Improved the delivery of new store openings, refurbishments and property projects, reducing programme timescales while maintaining quality standards.
• Brought stronger commercial control. Enhanced procurement processes and supplier management strategies have delivered improved value, supporting cost control and operational resilience across the business.

Together, these have strengthened Poundland & Dealz's ability to manage a growing property portfolio while embedding sustainability into everyday operations: better property and facilities management performance, greater operational efficiency across the retail estate, stronger supplier and contract management, more effective store development and refurbishment delivery, and closer alignment between property strategy and business objectives.

Why This Placement Worked

Property and sustainability are still often recruited as separate functions. Bringing them under one director only works if the appointee has genuinely led both, rather than being a property leader with sustainability added to the job description. This search treated sustainability delivery as a hard requirement alongside estate and FM leadership, and assessed for it directly.

Maxwell Stephens recruits senior property, facilities management and sustainability leaders for large and complex estates. If you are recruiting a director-level role across a multi-site retail or commercial portfolio, get in touch with our team.