Wal-Mart Stores Losing Top Two Executives at Online Division
Wal-Mart Stores Losing Top Two Executives at Online Division
Beth Hall/Bloomberg
Eduardo Castro-Wright speaks during the company's annual shareholders meeting in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Eduardo Castro-Wright speaks during the company's annual shareholders meeting in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Photographer: Beth Hall/Bloomberg
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is losing the two executives in charge of its online business as the world’s largest retailer works to win shoppers that are making more purchases over the Internet.
Eduardo Castro-Wright, a Wal-Mart vice chairman who ran global sourcing operations along with the online business, will retire in July, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart said today in a statement. Wan Ling Martello, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president of e-commerce, will replace Jim Singh as chief financial officer of Nestle SA (NESN), the food company said in a statement.
“It’s a serious loss of leadership in the e-commerce business,” Colin McGranahan, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said in an interview. “Eduardo had the internal firepower to make things happen.”
Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke has focused on improving the company’s Internet unit as more shoppers migrate to the Web and same-store sales at U.S. stores decline. Wal-Mart bought Silicon Valley e-commerce startup Kosmix and created @WalmartLabs to speed up innovation. The company also is testing home delivery of fresh groceries ordered online.
Wal-Mart rose 20 cents to $52.03 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 3.5 percent this year.
Castro-Wright
Castro-Wright, 56, previously ran Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores division, which accounts for about two-thirds of total revenue. He moved to California to assume his current positions in June 2010 as his wife recovered from heart surgery. He joined the company in 2001 in Mexico.
Martello joined Wal-Mart in 2005 and previously served as head of finance and strategy for Wal-Mart’s international business. Her replacement hasn’t been named, according to company spokesman Lorenzo Lopez. New leaders for the units Castro-Wright led will be in place by the end of January, Wal- Mart said.
The departures follow those of two other online executives, Raul Vazquez and Steve Nave, who left for personal reasons last month, the company said. At the time, Wal-Mart said dot-com leaders in markets such as the U.S. and U.K. would now report directly to the heads of stores in those countries, and not to Castro-Wright.
Wal-Mart doesn’t disclose its online sales. Analysts at Wells Fargo Securities LLC estimate that Walmart.com has revenue of about $6 billion a year, less than 2 percent of total sales. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), the world’s largest Internet retailer, increased sales 40 percent to $34.2 billion in 2010.
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Boyle in New York at mboyle20@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Robin Ajello at rajello@bloomberg.net
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