(Bloomberg) -- Kohl’s Corp. named the chief executive officer of Michaels Cos. to lead the retailer as it looks to recover from a deep sales slump.
Ashley Buchanan, 50, will take over as CEO of Kohl’s on Jan. 15. Buchanan will replace Tom Kingsbury, 72, who will stay on in an advisory role and remain on the board until he retires in May. Buchanan has served as Michaels Cos. CEO since 2020. He’s also a veteran of Walmart Inc. and Sam’s Club.
Kohl’s shares slipped 4.7% at 5:39 p.m. in extended New York trading. The stock has fallen 36% so far this year through Monday’s close, and it’s dropped more than 40% since Kingsbury took over in late 2022.
Buchanan will seek to break a quarterly sales slump that stretches back to early 2022. The company has struggled to attract shoppers in recent years and has lost market share while rivals such as Walmart Inc. and T.J. Maxx-owner TJX Cos. make gains.
Kingsbury, who was named as Kohl’s permanent CEO in early 2023, has sought to deepen the company’s tie-up with Sephora to drive traffic.
Kohl’s is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings tomorrow before US markets open.
“In our view, the prolonged turnaround is due to: difficulty of execution in a volatile consumer environment, unintended consequences of removing some categories which affected traffic or visits from existing customers, and the time it takes for customers to recognize changes,” Oliver Chen, an analyst with TD Cowen, wrote in a recent research note to clients.
(Updates share trading and adds context starting in fourth paragraph.)
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