Bed Bath & Beyond is replacing Mark Tritton as the company’s CEO, the Union, New Jersey based company said.
According to a press release board director Sue Gove will step in as interim CEO. “I step into this role keenly aware of the macro-economic environment,” Gove said in a statement, citing steep inflation and shifting buying habits as the main challenges to overcome.
Shares of the company were down more than 20% in morning trading, after the announcement was public.
Bed Bath & Beyond leadership shakeup came after the retailer is struggling amid poor results. In the last quarter the company reported sales falling to $1.46 billion from $1.95 billion a year earlier, after Wall Street expected sales of $1.51 billion.
Tritton joined the company in 2019 in the pre pandemic world, when retailers were already facing declining sales.
Since then, the company went through a major transformation to revive Bed Bath’s brand, grow sales and recover customers. Yet, after another quarter of declining sales and posting a steeper loss, the company announced the change.
According to Gove, results in the first quarter were “not up to our expectations.” The interim CEO also said that in addition to working to fix supply chain problems, reduce costs and improve its balance sheet, the company will focus on attracting new customers, which is going “back to basics mantra”.
A new chief merchandising officer was also announced.
