Simon Arora, B&M Retail
Simon Arora
Former CEO
B&M Retail

Simon Arora is a British entrepreneur who transformed B&M from a struggling regional discount chain into a FTSE 100 retail giant. Born to Indian immigrant market traders in Manchester, he studied law at Cambridge before working at McKinsey, 3i and Barclays. At 17, Arora and his brother Bobby founded Orient Sourcing Services in the mid-1990s, importing housewares from Asia. With Simon as CEO, Bobby as trading director and their other brother Robin handling FMCG, they expanded the loss-making business into a £5bn+ retail empire with £600m EBITDA. Their success was built on rapid decision-making, strong sibling trust, shared work ethic and family support. Simon served as CEO until 2022.