Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s U.S. chief Bill Simon, who struggled to
lift sales as it fought off competition from dollar stores and
online retailers, will be leaving the company on Aug. 8, the
retailer said Thursday.
Mr. Simon, 54, who joined the company in 2006, will be succeeded
by Greg Foran, who took over the company's Asia division in April.
Wal-Mart said it would announce Mr. Foran's successor at a later
date.
Mr. Foran, 53, joined Wal-Mart in 2011 from Woolworths Ltd. in
Australia and served as president of Wal-Mart China, where he
presided over the country as it tangled with compliance and
government regulation as it tried to open stores.
The company declined to make the executives available for
comment and didn't give a reason for Mr. Simon's departure. It said
Mr. Simon would stay on as a consultant with the company through
Jan. 31 and see the company through the busy holiday period.
A straight-talking outsider who served various roles at Diageo
PLC, PepsiCo Inc., and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's
administration, Mr. Simon was among the favored candidates to
succeed Mike Duke as CEO of Wal-Mart last year but was passed over
for the job when company insider Doug McMillon assumed the
role.
Mr. McMillon credited Mr. Simon with pushing Wal-Mart away from
its large format stores in favor of smaller ones, as well as with
integrating online sales with physical stores. Even so, Mr. Simon
wasn't able to move the $279 billion U.S. division fast enough. In
May, Wal-Mart's U.S. division reported its fifth straight quarter
of negative U.S. sales, excluding newly opened or closed stores,
and its sixth straight quarter of dwindling traffic.
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