Dive Brief:
- Retail giant Target has promoted Senior Vice President of Operations Michael Fiddelke, a 15-year company veteran, to CFO, effective Nov. 1., replacing Cathy Smith, who announced her retirement in January. Smith will stay on in an advisory role through next May.
- The company also announced the departure of Chief Merchant Mark Tritton to Bed Bath & Beyond. It tapped two senior merchandising executives to fill the role.
- Target described the appointments of Christina Hennington and Jill Sando to fill the chief merchant office as "interim." But the company added that this "operating structure will remain in place until further notice" and that Target doesn't have plans for an external search for a permanent chief merchant.
Dive Insight:
Moving Fiddelke into the CFO role is "a solid choice" — after a long search— that helps ensure consistency, analysts with Telsey Advisory Group, led by Joseph Feldman, said in an emailed client note.
The analysts had a more mixed view on Hennington and Sando's promotion to replace the outgoing CMO. Although the two executives show that "the bench at [Target] is deep ... it's hard to see this departure as anything but a loss given the role merchandising has played in the company's revitalization," they said in their note.
Between them, Hennington and Sando bring 38 years of experience at Target, and oversee some of the retailer's most important categories, which should bring some continuity and stability to the void left by Tritton.
Hennington currently serves as senior vice president and general merchandising manager of essentials, beauty, hardlines and services at Target, while Sando holds the same title and oversees apparel, accessories and home.
Tritton joined Target in 2016 from Nordstrom Product Group, where he doubled Nordstrom's private label business. At Target, he's helped lead a renaissance at the retailer.
The retailer, after a slump earlier this decade, has effectively pulled off a turnaround, with a major contribution from a merchandising reset led by Tritton. Over the past three years, Target has been steadily rolling out new private labels across categories aimed at freshening its assortment and keeping it relevant.
"While former CMO Mark Tritton will be missed, we are confident that Christina Hennington and Jill Sando, along with Target's deep bench of merchants, should be able to step up and manage the business," the analysts said.
Wells Fargo analysts appeared less optimistic, writing that the executive changes are "probably net to a negative update overall."