Wal-Mart website CEO Joel Anderson to step down

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said Joel Anderson, chief executive of its United States website, Walmart.com, would step down, at a time the company plans to speed up investments in technology to boost sales at its fast-growing e-commerce business.

Fernando Madeira, CEO of Latin America eCommerce at Wal-Mart, will replace Anderson, according to a company memo seen by Reuters.

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Madeira will now relocate to San Bruno, California from Brazil to assume additional responsibility for Wal-Mart’s U.S. markets, the memo said.

Anderson will take up a job at a different company, Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Toporek told Reuters in an email.

Wal-Mart appointed Gregory Penner vice chairman on Friday, showing that the world’s largest retailer is looking at younger executives to revive its fortunes.

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Penner is now in a position to succeed Chairman Rob Walton, his 69-year-old father-in-law.

Penner’s appointment comes at a time when the company’s U.S. same-store sales are falling and it is struggling to move past a bribery scandal at its Mexico unit that has cost it more than $500 million since 2012.

The company, in May, forecast a current-quarter profit that fell short of analysts’ expectations, after quarterly sales grew at their slowest pace in nearly five years.

Wal-Mart is also facing increasing dissent from its employees who, backed by unions, are demanding higher wages, better benefits and more full-time jobs.
Reuters