Broad organizational realignment underway at Walmart U.S.

Walmart U.S. is in the process of a major organizational realignment under the supervision of Judith McKenna, chief operating officer for the retailer’s U.S. business unit.

McKenna outlined the organizational changes in an email to workers on Friday (May 29). The City Wire obtained a copy of that email that details divisional and regional realignment as well as additional leadership moves.

Earlier this month Walmart U.S. announced it was streamlining its operations under the leadership of Mike Moore, executive vice president of supercenters, and Julie Murphy, executive vice president of the neighborhood market formats.

McKenna noted in the email that management aims to bring more leadership to its stores and a more focused approach in some metro areas with the U.S. realignment.

“We are increasing the number of operating regions from 41 to 50 regions. These roles will be based in the markets in which they operate,” she wrote. “We’re streamlining our business and will now have six supercenter divisions and two neighborhood market divisions, both based in the home office.”

She said there are no significant changes to store- or market-level operations in the restructuring plan.

“As we continue to focus on the customer and retail fundamentals, we have created eight new supercenter regions and one new neighborhood market region. This will drive operational simplicity and consistency in execution and will help us bring the right talent closer to our stores,” she noted.

Following are the new regions.
Region 3 – Jacksonville, Fla.
Region 8 – San Antonio, Texas
Region 15 – New Haven, Conn.
Region 21 – Columbus, Ohio
Region 26 – Raleigh, N.C.
Region 40 – Kansas City, Mo.
Region 54 – Las Vegas, Nev.
Region 58 – San Diego, Calif.

McKenna said one additional region is planned in the Carolinas for neighborhood markets.

McKenna said the additions bring the total to 44 “operational regions” within supercenters and six within the neighborhood market segment. She said leaders for the new regions will soon be named.

Within the growing neighborhood market unit, McKenna said the divisional alignment has been simplified to two divisions. The East division will be led by Glenda Fleming Willis and David Norman will lead the West division.

She said the organizational realignment for supercenters creates six divisions.
• Northeast – led by Jerry Spencer
• Mid-Atlantic – led by David Redfield
• North Central – led by Karisa Sprague
• South Central – led by Carol Johnston
• Southeast – led by Martin Mundo
• West – led by Dacona Smith

Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran recently told analysts in the May 19 earnings call that he and McKenna are making a point to visit as many stores as possible in their effort to improve store traffic and comparable sales. He said simplified operational management will shorten the chain of command which he said is crucial to his agenda
 
“We are making progress and beginning to see the benefits of simplifying how we operate. More importantly, our customers are telling us they’re noticing, too,” McKenna noted in the internal email.

Other executives on the move with this latest realignment include Ben Hassing, senior vice president of the pacific southwest division, who is taking a short-term assignment reporting to McKenna before he assumes a senior leadership role in Walmart International.

“In his short-term role, he will focus on refining and aligning our financial planning process. His expertise of several business areas will be a great asset in this important work. Further details on his International appointment will be announced in the future,” McKenna wrote.

Mitch Slape, senior vice president of the Great Lakes division, is moving to Walmart International. She said Mitch joined Walmart U.S. in 2013 from Bharti Retail Ltd., where he served as chief operating officer.