By Natallie Rocha | [email protected] | The San Diego Union-Tribune
Petco Health and Wellness, the San Diego-based pet supply company, has tapped a new chief financial officer in its continued effort to stabilize its finances and reach profitability.
The company has shaken up its C-suite -- including installing a new CEO -- multiple times over the past year.
The Rancho Bernardo-based company announced Tuesday that Sabrina Simmons was appointed chief financial officer effective Feb. 17. She succeeds Brian LaRose who has served as CFO since August 2021 and will remain employed by Petco until the end of April.
Simmons, 61, comes from retail giant Gap, where she held a variety of roles between 2001 and 2017, including executive vice president and CFO. She has served on Petco's board since 2021 and resigned the seat following her appointment this week.
As part of Petco's offer, Simmons will receive a base salary of $840,000, benefits, restricted stock options tied to performance worth at least $2.5 million and annual equity awards worth about $2 million, according to SEC filings.
Petco has made a string of changes to the C-suite recently, most notably, the company parted ways with its CEO around this time last year. Joel Anderson, a former executive at retail giants FiveBelow and Walmart, took the reins as CEO of Petco in July.
"Today's appointments represent a significant evolution of Petco's leadership team that brings robust retail expertise to help accelerate initiatives we're undertaking to strengthen our retail fundamentals, drive profit improvement and return us to growth," Anderson said in this week's announcement.
Last May, the company's chief operating officer resigned and Petco eliminated the position from its C-suite. That month, the company also terminated its chief merchandising and supply chain officer. The company also appointed Glenn Murphy as executive chairman of the board, Holly May as chief human resources officer, and Joe Venezia as chief revenue officer.
In addition to Simmons joining Petco as CFO this week, the company announced that Michael Romanko will become chief customer and product officer. He was previously chief merchandising and marketing officer at Five Below for a decade.
Petco named Jack Stout, a former C-suite executive at 7-Eleven, as its next chief merchandising officer, after serving in that role on an interim basis since July.
Both of these appointments take effect Feb. 24.
The company has struggled to maintain profitability with sales down and consumers pulling back on spending over the past year. That's after the pandemic offered a financial boon for the pet care sector as more people adopted animals during isolation.
Last year, the company reduced headcount by 56 people at its headquarters to cut costs. The company employed more than 29,000 people as of Feb. 3.
During its third quarter of fiscal year 2024, Petco recorded a net loss of $87.9 million -- an improvement from the previous year's period when it had a net loss of $1.3 billion. Its net revenue for the quarter rose 1.2 percent year over year.
Petco's sales of food and services, such as veterinary and grooming, offset a continued decline in its pet supplies and companion animal segment.