Jeff Gennette, CEO of Macy’s.
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Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette will retire early next year after a four-decade career with the company, the department store chain announced Wednesday morning.
Gennette, 61, wants to step down in February. He will be succeeded by Tony Spring, CEO of the company’s upscale department store Bloomingdale’s.
In addition to the CEO change, Adrian Mitchell, Macy’s Chief Financial Officer, will assume an expanded role and also serve as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. He will lead the store operations, technology and supply chain teams alongside his existing roles in finance and real estate.
Stepping into Macy’s helm in 2017, Gennette faced declining sales and difficult questions about whether the long-established retailer — and department stores in general — could survive as shoppers went online and increasingly to discount, e-commerce players and fashionable brands .
He led efforts to revitalize the nearly 165-year-old company. He launched Macy’s three-year turnaround plan called Polaris, which was announced in February 2020. He called for accelerating digital growth, shutting down underperforming stores and investing in the company’s best stores to boost profits.
Over the past three years, Gennette has navigated the company through another major challenge: a pandemic that forced Macy’s to temporarily close its nearly 800 stores and furlough the majority of its employees.
The retailer emerged from the pandemic with a smaller workforce and store space, but with less debt and a more modern, data-driven organization.
The company’s shares have fallen about 50% since March 2017, when Gennette took over the top job, but the stock has recovered dramatically from the March and April 2020 lows shortly after Covid was declared a pandemic.
Over the past year, the retailer managed to avoid the inventory woes of many of its retail peers by better positioning it for the holiday season and the start of the fiscal year. It has recently moved away from its typical role as a mall anchor by opening and testing several smaller locations outside of malls.
Gennette has also emerged as an openly gay leader of a publicly traded company. He was a vehement advocate of equal rights, e.g. B. Public support and corporate support for the Marriage Respect Act.
In a press release, Macy’s said Spring, 58, had been selected as the next leader after an internal and external search.
Bloomingdale’s, which Spring currently runs, has been one of the strongest parts of Macy’s business. The banner, which has fewer stores but more luxury brands and higher-spend customers, outperformed Macy’s banner of the same name in every quarter for the past fiscal year.
The company also includes beauty banner Bluemercury, which Spring also helped make it another bright spot for the company.
Gennette praised Spring’s performance.
“Tony consistently innovates for the client, is an exceptional brand builder and an excellent talent developer who has strengthened our culture through his leadership,” he said in a new press release.
Gennette called Spring and Mitchell “an ideal team to build on our momentum and lead Macy’s, Inc. into the future.”