By Alexandria Sage
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc
The shuffle comes as Walmart tries to work its way out of a period of sluggish sales that have followed the company's outperformance during the recession, when droves of shoppers headed to the discount chain to save money.
In a September 3 memo to employees, Bill Simon, chief executive of the U.S. division, outlined four merchandising areas to be led by "seasoned merchants."
"This structure aligns similar categories and allows us to be even more competitive in each customer channel, improving how we target and localize merchandise," wrote Simon, who was named to his role in August.
He previously served as chief operating officer for the U.S. division.
Wal-Mart announced in early July that its head of merchandising, John Fleming, was leaving as of August 1. Fleming was a 10-year veteran of the company.
A spokesman for Walmart confirmed on Thursday that Simon would not be filling that top merchandising job "for now."
The four merchandising units are general merchandise and replenishment; food; softlines; and a group that includes consumables, health and wellness and walmart.com.
The executive vice presidents heading those segments, respectively, are John Westling, Jack Sinclair, Andy Barron and Duncan MacNaughton, who was brought in from Walmart Canada. Westling and Sinclair have been with the company since 1988 and 2008, respectively, and Andy Barron since 1993.
The executives will report directly to Simon.
In a note to clients, J.P. Morgan analyst Charles Grom said he viewed the changes as "net neutral," but added that the decentralized merchandising team "will further stretch Mr. Simon," who has not chosen to name a successor as COO.
"We hoped Walmart would look externally for a new chief merchant given the problems with recent top-line strategies," Grom wrote in a note on Thursday.
Walmart U.S. has seen same-store sales -- a key gauge of retail strength -- fall for the past five quarters as its core customers continue to be hit by high unemployment and a weak economy.
In August, the company said it would end a series of steep price cuts on thousands of items in U.S. stores, a strategy it said did not result in a sales boost.
Simon predicted then that sales would improve by the company's fourth quarter.
Shares of Wal-Mart closed up 8 cents to $51.91 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; editing by Carol Bishopric)
