BENTONVILLE, Ark.–In a series of moves announced yesterday, Walmart has completely overhauled its geographical, merchandising and e-commerce operations in the United States, centralizing some operating functions while regionalizing merchandising.
Among the key changes, the retailer has reorganized its U.S. stores into three geographic business units: Walmart West, Walmart South and Walmart North.
According to Bill Simon, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Walmart U.S., the company has promoted Raul Vazquez, most recently president and chief executive officer of Walmart.com, to executive vice president and president of Walmart West.
Also, Rosalind Brewer, previously president of Walmart U.S.’s southeast division, has been promoted to executive vice president and president of Walmart South. Hank Mullany, previously president of the northeast division, has been named executive vice president and president of Walmart North.
Walmart has also reconfigured its store merchandising operation around this new geographical structure. According to John Fleming, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer of Walmart U.S., Andy Barron, senior vice president of store merchandising execution, will lead a team that will design merchandising strategies for each of the three new geographic groups.
The mass merchant has also restructured its U.S. e-commerce section by integrating the dot-com merchandising and operations with the traditional retail business, according to a memo from Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright. The company has named Steve Nave senior vice president and general manager of the Walmart.com U.S. business unit.
Walmart has also promoted Wan Ling Martello, chief financial officer of Walmart International, to executive vice president and chief operating officer of the company’s Global.com unit, responsible for developing and executing Walmart’s global dot-com strategies. Castro-Wright said the changes will accelerate Walmart’s efforts to “fully evolve into a multichannel retailer in the U.S.”
In his own memo about the sweeping changes, Mike Duke, president and CEO, said the movies will strengthen Walmart’s price leadership among retailers, and “deliver more value to customers and shareholders ... looking for ways to operate leaner and strengthen our price leadership has always been a core part of our culture.”
