Petco Names Chief Stores Officer, Axes COO Role

Petco Health and Wellness Co. Inc. (San Diego) has hired a Chief Stores Officer and eliminated the role of Chief Operating Officer. Those moves and others are part of an ongoing effort “to simplify decision making, focus on fewer and clearer priorities and empower the organization to move with greater speed and agility,” the company said in a news release.

“Today’s changes to our leadership team will accelerate Petco’s initiatives to drive retail excellence as we execute on our operational reset,” said Interim CEO Mike Mohan. “Across the business, we are streamlining the organization to empower faster and more effective implementation of best practices on the path to restoring our profitability.”

The new Chief Stores Officer is James Roth, who most recently served as EVP, Stores, for Abercrombie & Fitch Co., where he led the stores team across five brands, 16 countries and more than 800 stores.

Additionally, Petco said COO Justin Tichy has decided to depart the company, and that his role has been eliminated.

The company also announced it is expanding its executive leadership team to include the following:

• Shari White, who has been promoted to Interim Chief Merchant. (A search for a permanent hire is underway.) That move is related to the upcoming exit of Chief Merchandising and Supply Chain Officer Amy College, who is leaving the company Aug. 17.
• Tim Buckenberger, SVP, Merchandise Planning, Inventory & Supply Chain.
• Steve Janowiak, VP Digital.
• Stephen Reyes, SVP, Services.

This is Petco’s second major c-suite reshuffling in the past two years. The company – which reported net revenue of $1.5 billion in its most recent quarter (a decrease of 1.7 percent year over year) and a comparable sales decline for the same period of 1.2 percent – operates 1500-plus pet care centers across the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico.