Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) continues to build its management team tasked with a turnaround in a retailing environment that's changed dramatically in recent years. On Monday the organization named Anu Gupta as its chief strategy and transformation officer, effective Oct. 5. Gupta is a former Target executive, where she headed up its strategy execution and operational excellence initiatives. She will be stepping down from her role as chief operating officer of Jyve Corporation, which specializes in retailing optimization and recruitment.
Gupta's recruitment caps off a series of new-hire announcements, pointing to matters that weigh on CEO Mark Tritton. Within the past month, the company has also named a new chief technology officer, a new chief supply chain officer, and a new store optimization head. As is the case with the transformation aspect of Gupta's new positions, some of these roles are newly created jobs.
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All of these roles, however, address most of the elements of the five-pronged turnaround plan Tritton unveiled early this year. That new framework, management says, focuses on products, price, promise, place, and people. As Bed Bath & Beyond's strategy and transformation officer, Gupta will help oversee the shift that calls for new product deployment, a reduction in unnecessary goods in stores, and the implementation of technologies that will help strengthen Bed Bath & Beyond's omnichannel presence. Other newly named executives are also responsible for more focused aspects of the turnaround plan.
Even so, the retailer must shrink in some ways while it works to grow in others. Bed Bath & Beyond announced in July it would be shuttering about 200 of its 1,024 stores within the next two years.
