2022 was a big year for CEO departures in retail. Bed Bath & Beyond, Gap, Glossier, Bonobos and more saw their top executives leave as the businesses changed or struggled to compete. That means there are also a lot of open positions in the industry. 

E-commerce company Wish announced CEO Vijay Talwar was leaving in September and still has not named a permanent replacement. In early December, VF Corp. CEO Steve Rendle retired from his post, leaving that retailer on the hunt for a permanent replacement. The new year has not been any slower: Already, Stitch Fix’s CEO has stepped down amid job cuts and Rite Aid’s CEO has exited. 

According to executive search company Heidrick & Struggles, there were 11 CEO departures at retail companies in the Fortune 1000 in 2022, the majority (eight) of which were in the Fortune 500. That was consistent with the past two years, where 10 and nine executives, respectively, left their companies and is lower than 2019’s total (14). 2023 could be an even bigger year, according to Catherine Lepard, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles and a managing partner of the company’s retail and direct-to-consumer practice.

“Looking ahead to 2023, we can expect to see continued and potentially accelerated executive turnover within the retail space. In particular, we’re anticipating that Q1 and Q2 will be the choppiest due to inflation and the slowing economy,” Lepard said in emailed comments. “Consumers are shifting their spending behaviors and trading down to private or value brands, focusing on essentials and veering away from big ticket items. It will continue to be challenging for retailers to beat the prior year’s sales performance.”

Top executives taking the reins in 2023 are entering a tough environment still defined by inflation and consumer behavior changes, with the threat of a recession looming over the industry. Fitch analysts earlier this year said 2023 could be yet another year where the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. And while default rates might stay relatively low in retail, the bankruptcy of Party City has already set a dark tone for retailers on the brink.

Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Sue Gove, who became a permanent member of the team in October, and whoever replaces Heyward Donigan at Rite Aid, have their work cut out for them. Both retailers have been cited as a bankruptcy risk as they struggle to hang on financially. But retailers across the board are facing challenges.

A recent Challenger, Gray & Christmas report found that 100 CEOs across industries left their jobs in December, an increase from 95 in November. The yearly total for 2022 is lower than last year, but in retail, the number has stayed relatively steady. Where in 2021, 23 CEOs left their posts, that number was 21 last year.

Layoffs in retail have been rampant, both last year and into the new year, and new CEOs will have to navigate through existing company challenges and whatever macroeconomic conditions the industry could face in 2023.

Here are some of the retailers that have new leadership going into the new year, and what to watch for.

Adidas

Puma’s former CEO Bjørn Gulden just took the reins at competitor Adidas on Jan. 1. Adidas said over the summer that Kasper Rørsted would exit the top post at the company sometime in 2023, but the executive actually left Nov. 11, with the retailer’s chief financial officer leading in the short interim period.

Gulden’s first month at the company has already been somewhat eventful, with a fake press release circulating that said Adidas had named a co-CEO to ensure ethical manufacturing. That is far from the only challenge Gulden will face at the athletics retailer. The company is coming off of a recent break up with Kanye West, also known as Ye, and has said it will continue to sell Yeezy products without the brand name attached, which could be received poorly by customers.

Dive Brief:

• Unilever has named Hein Schumacher as its next CEO. Schumacher is currently CEO at European dairy giant Royal FrieslandCampina. He takes over for Alan Jope on July 1.
• Schumacher has been with Royal FrieslandCampina since he was hired as CFO in 2014. He has been its CEO since 2018. Prior to that, he was with H.J. Heinz for more than a decade, serving in positions in the U.S., Europe and Asia, where he led a turnaround of the Asia Pacific zone. He began his career as a finance manager at Unilever.
• Unilever CEO Alan Jope announced his retirement in September, following a year of change for the company. 

Dive Insight:

Schumacher’s selection as the next Unilever CEO comes after a global search, kicked off last fall.

“Hein is a dynamic, values-driven business leader who has a diverse background of experiences and an excellent track record of delivery in the global consumer goods industry,” Unilever Chairman Nils Andersen said in the release announcing Schumacher’s hiring. “He has exceptional strategic capabilities, proven operational effectiveness, and strong experience in both developed and developing markets.”

Unilever has been on a major change path since 2021, when it sold most of its tea business — including its marquee Lipton brand — for $5 billion. Months later, in early 2022, Unilever made a 50 billion pounds (about $68 billion) offer to buy GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer unit, home to brands like Tums and Centrum vitamins. 

At the time, there was talk the European consumer goods giant was looking into divesting the entirety of its food business. As the offer for GSK’s unit became public, it noted in a regulatory filing that Unilever’s board concluded its future direction “lies in materially expanding its presence in Health, Beauty, and Hygiene.”

Unilever did not reach a deal to buy GSK, and the company also did not sell any more major food brands. Instead, the company instituted a massive restructuring, laying off thousands of managers worldwide and restructuring around five distinct product groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition and Ice Cream. 

In the midst of the tumult, activist investor Trian Fund Management LP took a 1.5% stake in the company, and Unilever added Trian founding partner Nelson Peltz to its board.

In September, weeks before announcing his retirement, Jope said at Barclays Consumer Staples Conference that Unilever had no plans to sell its Nutrition or Ice Cream segments. Both, he said, are important parts of Unilever, and not as much of a drag on the company as assumed.

With an experienced dairy industry operator coming to Unilever, ice cream may become a new focus. However, Schumacher may also draw from his experience helming a complex global business navigating an uncertain economic reality. 

Under Schumacher, FrieslandCampina has recently pursued major divestments to more closely target its business. As he detailed the company’s financial results in the first half of 2022, Schumacher said they had pursued a series of investments and divestments to optimize business in the face of “great uncertainty” in global markets.

Last June, the company was in talks to sell parts of its German consumer business to Theo Muller, including Landliebe, one of FrieslandCampina’s top 10 consumer brands by revenue. The deal does not appear to have closed yet.

FrieslandCampina is also working on divesting its Friso infant nutrition brand, which is sold in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. A sale has been put on hold because bids by those on the short list fell below expectations, Bloomberg reported last summer.

Schumacher also led FrieslandCampina in making big sustainability commitments — something that has also been a priority for Unilever. FrieslandCampina published a plan last spring to reach climate neutral dairy by 2050. Last summer, the company launched a pilot project with Rabobank and ag tech company Lely to install 93 nitrogen-reducing devices on dairy farms. 

Analysts who spoke to Bloomberg welcomed the idea of a CEO from outside of Unilever. Investors also seemed to tentatively approve, with Unilever’s stock price increasing 2% in early Monday trading.

Dive Brief:

• Vera Bradley last week shook up its business, including its leadership. Brand President Daren Hull, Chief Creative Officer Beatrice Mac Cabe and Chief Revenue Officer Mary Beth Trypus all left, with their positions eliminated. The brand is looking to fill the newly created role of senior vice president of merchandising and design.

• For $10 million, the company will acquire the 25% interest in DTC bracelet brand Pura Vida that it doesn’t yet own, scheduled to close Monday. Pure Vida co-Presidents and founders Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman left the company Saturday, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. As Vera Bradley searches for someone to serve as president of Pura Vida, the brand’s vice president of finance, Sujay Shah, will assume day-to-day oversight.

• Vera Bradley also named Alison Hiatt chief marketing officer, overseeing digital marketing, customer data and e-commerce, and supervising its creative marketing, store and brand experience teams. She most recently was chief marketing officer at ice cream company Salt and Straw and, before that, at Banfield Pet Hospitals.

Dive Insight:

Newly arrived CEO Jacqueline Ardrey, who in November replaced retiring chief Robert Wallstrom, is starting off the year with some dramatic moves.

The company was already on the hunt for more opportunities to trim expenses, including closing stores. The company shuttered 10 full-line stores in 2022, Wallstrom said in December. Vera Bradley saw revenues and profits shrink in the third quarter.

“While stores will continue to play an important part of our Vera Bradley distribution strategy going forward, we continue to rationalize our store base, closing underperforming stores as leases expire,” Wallstrom said.

When the company acquired a 75% stake in the Pura Vida brand in 2019 for $75 million-plus, its rationale centered on broad commonalities in their marketing opportunities, including “devoted, emotionally-connected, and multi-generational customer bases; alignment as casual, comfortable, affordable, and fun lifestyle brands; positioning as ‘gifting’ and socially-connected brands; strong, entrepreneurial cultures and shared values of ingenuity, tenacity, and optimism; a keen focus on community, charity, and social consciousness; complementary, multi-channel distribution strategies; and talented core leadership teams aligned and committed to the long-term success of their brands.”

More specifically, Vera Bradley noted “Pura Vida’s unique positioning as a digitally-native brand with a loyal and growing consumer following,” and that the DTC brand could leverage its new parent’s infrastructure for growth. 

Last week, much of the core leadership teams at both businesses have left, a necessary step toward the company’s goals, Ardrey said in a statement. The changes announced Jan. 24 will produce annualized savings exceeding $2 million, on top of $25 million in cost cuts “previously identified and largely realized in fiscal 2023,” she said.

“It is critical to have a high-functioning, aligned executive leadership team, and this flattened and streamlined structure will help us execute better, make faster decisions, and drive success,” she said.

Dive Brief:

• Expanding its footprint in the city, upscale convenience store chain Foxtrot on Tuesday will open a new location in the Farragut Square area of Washington, D.C., according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.
• Foxtrot’s new Farragut Square store is meant to “cater to the surrounding office buildings, providing a space for lunch meetings, coffee breaks and much-needed snack breaks,” according to the company.
• The new location at 888 17th St. NW will host an opening event on Tuesday, which will include swag, food and drinks, per the release. Visitors who download and use the company app during the opening week will get a gift while supplies last. 

Dive Insight:

Foxtrot’s heavy expansion in the Washington, D.C., area is continuing into the new year with its latest store.

The company currently has six other locations in the Washington, Maryland and Virginia region. In April 2022, the company announced it planned to open four stores in the region by the end of the year, which included its first Maryland location in the Bethesda neighborhood and two additional Washington, D.C., spaces. The expansion arose from $100 million in investments it had raised in months prior.

Since the company opened its first Washington location in March 2021, it’s had a focus on carrying local products. Currently, it offers products from regional brands including Ceremony Coffee, Little Sesame and Anchor Beer, per the press release.

It also discovers and showcases more local brands through its annual Up & Comers awards, which help to “catalyze the growth and success of small businesses.”

Since initially launching as an online retailer in 2013, Foxtrot has opened a total of 24 brick-and-mortar stores across the Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C., areas.

As consumer demand slows, the return of high-profile retailers in financial distress is a reminder of how vital trade credit is to the health and even viability of many store chains. It also shines a light on the financial threats of a flailing retailer to its suppliers.

But the question of whether to ship to a retailer in distress or even bankruptcy is rarely an easy one for suppliers.

When Party City filed for Chapter 11 last week, it owed critical domestic vendors more than $10 million for goods already shipped, and another $25 million to foreign vendors. The struggling party goods retailer had delayed payments as its liquidity waned. Suppliers had in turn shortened payment terms or started asking for cash on delivery, accelerating the retailer’s liquidity issues.

The story is typical of retail bankruptcies. No supplier wants their customer to fall into Chapter 11, yet tightened payment terms can accelerate a liquidity crisis.

“It could snowball,” said Dennis Cantalupo, CEO of Pulse Ratings, a credit analysis firm covering the retail space. “Suppliers are just responding to the retailer paying them slower.”

Cantalupo pointed to the case of Bed Bath & Beyond, which issued a warning earlier in January that it might have to file for bankruptcy if out-of-court restructuring efforts didn’t pan out.

“As a supplier, you’re seeing, you’re hearing, and you’re reading in black and white that this company may be considering bankruptcy,” he said. “You have to take that threat seriously, and respond accordingly.”

Forecasting failure

Suppliers need to know the financial risks of selling to a retailer long before a bankruptcy is imminent.

“The first step is just simply doing the analysis,” Taylor Ricketts, AVP with Creditntell, said. “The second piece is also knowing your own situation, your challenges, communicating internally trying to figure out how long you have to mitigate.”

Albert Furst, chief operating officer of Creditntell, said that suppliers are always mulling the probabilities of a customer going bankrupt, and when, so that they can make decisions based on their own business.

“Are they risk averse? What are their margins? Do they have product that can’t go anywhere else? What are the terms? Are they shorter or longer?” Furst said, describing the thought decision process of suppliers, which some may need to go through well in advance of the back-to-school or holiday season.

Retailers are well aware of the pressures facing their suppliers. In asking for emergency court authorization to pay its critical suppliers, Party City noted that some of its holiday product needed nearly a year of lead time for its vendors to develop, make and ship, and they often required payment far in advance.

Suppliers naturally want to ensure they’ll get paid. But cutting ties with a retailer or tightening up payment terms too early or too tightly comes with its own downside. Cantalupo noted that suppliers want to keep shipping merchandise as long as a retailer is not a short-term credit risk in their analysis.

“The way suppliers make money is to sell merchandise,” Cantalupo said. “So if they reduce a credit line, or stop selling into a retailer too soon, they can lose a lot of inventory turns that way.”

Suppliers have options to hedge their risks, including receivable puts and insurance, but those are added costs, and might not be offered once a retailer’s finances spiral past a certain point.

Selling into a bankruptcy

Once a retailer files for bankruptcy, the risks can be vast for some suppliers.

Anything owed on goods shipped within 20 days becomes an administrative claim in the case — known as a 503(b)(9) claim in the Bankruptcy Code — which means suppliers have to go through a court-regulated process with other creditors to get paid. Meanwhile, money for goods received by suppliers within 90 days of a bankruptcy filing could be reclaimed by the court if a supplier is deemed to have received preferential treatment in that payment.

Many retailers in bankruptcy want to pay back their suppliers quickly to maintain relationships, hence Party City’s emergency request within Chapter 11 to pay its critical suppliers.

Suppliers might even maintain trade credit for a bankrupt retailer, putting their confidence in the customer’s debtor-in-possession financing, which is meant to help fund companies through the Chapter 11 process. But it’s not without risk.

One stark illustration was the toy store giant Toys R Us, which filed for Chapter 11 in 2017 with plans to reorganize but ended up losing its financing after falling short of holiday targets.

An extensive list of toy makers and other suppliers who shipped to the retailer on terms collectively lost millions of dollars. But even that worst-case risk may be worth taking for suppliers that can absorb the losses.

Ricketts pointed to the Sears Holdings bankruptcy, which dragged on for years and forced suppliers to take a significant haircut when all was said and done. But if the margins were decent and suppliers kept selling to Sears through the several years of bankruptcy speculation, they still could have made a pile of money far outweighing what they lost in bankruptcy, Ricketts noted.

“It depends on your profit margins, it depends on a lot of things,” Ricketts said. “It comes back to how confident you are in the analysis.”

Ricketts also noted sometimes the credit department at a supplier gets overruled by the sales team. “The account could be that strategic, that important,” Ricketts said.

Dive Brief:

• John Garratt, Dollar General’s president and chief financial officer, plans to retire on June 2 after less than six months in the position. Garratt became president and CFO in September 2022.
• Garratt has been with the company for nearly a decade. He first served as senior vice president of finance and strategy, then assumed the role of executive vice president and CFO in late 2015. During his time at Dollar General, he oversaw finance, accounting, investor relations and procurement. 
• In an announcement, the company praised Garratt for his “focus on delivering strong and consistent financial performance.” Dollar General said it’s evaluating options for its next CFO. The company isn’t conducting an external search right now.

Dive Insight:

Garratt has more than 30 years of corporate, retail and financial leadership experience. Before joining Dollar General, Garratt held various roles with Yum Brands, which is the parent company of familiar fast food names like KFC and Pizza Hut. He also held financial management positions at Alcoa and General Electric.

Jeff Owen, Dollar General’s CEO, said Garratt’s “exceptional business and financial acumen coupled with his strategic vision have positioned the company for profitable growth.”

Tennessee-based Dollar General is one of America’s largest retailers. The company had $34.2 billion in retail sales in 2021. This C-suite leadership transition comes as the company celebrates a milestone.

On Saturday, Dollar General commemorated the grand opening of its 19,000th store in Joplin, Missouri, with a community celebration and a $19,000 donation to a local elementary school. Customers received complimentary Dollar General gift cards, tote bags, and product samples.

By the end of 2021, Dollar General said it was one of the largest discount retailers in the United States by store count. At 19,000 stores, it is also one of the fastest-growing retailers. The retailer opened more than 1,000 stores in 2021 and 2022, and is on track to open an estimated 1,048 stores this year, according to a report from Coresight Research. The report also said the retailer accounted for more than 55% of all U.S. discount store openings in 2022.

By comparison, Virginia-based rival Dollar Tree, which also owns Family Dollar, has about 16,000 stores. Walmart has approximately 5,300 locations and Target has nearly 2,000 U.S. stores. 

The company also faces ongoing challenges. In early January, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asked a state court to issue a temporary restraining order against the company over recurring price discrepancies. 

Dollar General was founded in 1939 by J.L. Turner and his son, Cal Turner Sr. They opened the first Dollar General store in 1955 in Springfield, Kentucky.

Dive Brief:

• Alongside other retailers launching mobile apps, Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen have introduced shopping apps for iOS, the retailers announced Wednesday. 
• With the apps, shoppers can create registries, browse products across age groups, view and purchase items from 3D rooms, save their favorite products and make purchases using Apple Pay, according to the announcement. 
• Shoppers can also schedule appointments to meet with its designers in-store, at home or online.

Dive Insight:

Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen have joined other home goods retailers that have released mobile apps.

“The development of our mobile shopping apps was a coordinated effort focused on delivering a seamless, convenient customer experience. As brands who put digital first, the apps offer a new way to shop, find design inspiration and create and manage a registry on-the-go,” Jennifer Kellor, president of Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen, said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, other retailers have invested in mobile apps, too. In November, True Religion launched its mobile app and expects app to generate 10% of its e-commerce sales this year. In October, At Home debuted its own mobile app and expanded its same-day delivery to all locations. And in August, Bath & Body Works unveiled a mobile app alongside its new loyalty program that lets customers earn rewards points, shop and store their gift cards. Last March, Chico’s FAS debuted mobile apps across all of its portfolio brands.

The 2022 holiday season illustrated how critical it is for retailers to have a digital presence. Research from Adobe found that e-commerce sales rose 3.5% year-over-year between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 to $211.7 billion. The same report found that nearly half of online sales came from smartphones in the 2022 holiday season. 

Dive Brief:

• Resale platforms Trove and ThredUp added to their rosters this week amid exploding sales in used goods. Canada Goose has partnered with Trove for “Canada Goose Generations,” launching Tuesday in the U.S. and in Canada later this year, according to a company press release.

• Customers can trade in Canada Goose items, which are then “assessed and authenticated,” and receive a Canada Goose gift card, good at stores and online, if they are accepted. Vintage, preowned and refurbished goods are for sale via the Generations tab on the 65-year-old Canadian outerwear brand’s website. 

• Mall-based apparel store Francesca’s is the latest retailer to partner with ThredUp for its resale program, “Forever Francesca’s,” also announced Tuesday. Sellers can trade items for shopping credit usable at stores and online, and, for a limited time, will get an extra 15% for them, according to a company press release.

Dive Insight:

Selling secondhand goods is quickly evolving into a requirement for any retailer interested in tapping into consumers’ intense — and growing — interest in them. Shoppers see the option as helping the environment, getting a good deal or both. 

The market could reach $82 billion within three years, according to research from ThredUp and GlobalData. And the appeal is true not just for apparel but also electronics, furniture and sporting goods, according to a recent report from WD Partners. Retailers and brands from budget to luxury are increasingly moving to take part.

If the resale market is a dream, the logistics involved are something of a nightmare, however, according to Lee Peterson, executive vice president of thought leadership and marketing. So far, the acquisition, inventory management and sale of secondhand items are most efficiently and profitably conducted in stores, he recently told an audience of the National Retail Federation’s annual conference.

Still, most major chains and brands are keeping their resale programs online, operated with the help of third parties like ThredUp and Trove. Wells Fargo analysts see the resale-as-a-service side of ThredUp’s business as potentially more lucrative than its own retail operation, with retailers from J. Crew to Target, and now Francesca’s turning to the company.

“Francesca’s customer demographic is the perfect candidate for resale, as Gen Z and Millennials are the ones largely powering resale’s growth,” ThredUp CEO James Reinhart said in a statement.