Mullany Abruptly Departs Wal-Mart; Moore To Head 1,300 Store North Region

 Hank Mullany has left Wal-Mart. His sudden departure on November 4 as executive VP and president of the 1,307 store region-north for the world’s largest retail chain came as a surprise to many of his fellow associates and vendors in the region.

He will be replaced by Mike Moore, who has been with the Bentonville, AR retailer since 1988, most recently as senior VP-merchandising overseeing hardlines (fabrics, crafts, sporting goods). Before that, he had a corollary position to Mullany’s as senior VP and president of Wal-Mart’s western division operations. When the retailer consolidated its store operations network from five to three regions earlier this year, Moore returned to Bentonville. He will be relocating to the Delaware Valley shortly and will be based at the company’s offices in Horsham, PA where he will oversee 1,307 discount Wal-Mart stores, SuperCenters and Neighborhood Markets.

It was a little more than a month ago that Mullany addressed the Philadelphia-Central PA Association of Manufacturers’ Reps in King of Prussia and provided details of Wal-Mart’s expanded local approach to merchandising and procurement. He also told the vendor on hand that the company’s new small format store program will begin to be rolled out in 2011. He appeared bullish and confident that 2011 would be a strong year for Wal-Mart with 81 new projects set to open in his region.

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Since he joined Wal-Mart in 2006, Mullany has helped the big merchant grow its business significantly in the Northeast, especially with the opening of new SuperCenters and conversion of former “divisions one” Wal-Marts to combo units.

He also helped Wal-Mart soften its once harsh public perception by being more accessible and promoting programs that were environmentally friendly.

Mullany began his grocery industry career with Fleming Cos. in the early 1980s and joined Genuardi’s as controller in 1988. He later served as executive VP-finance for the Plymouth Meeting; PA based regional chain and in 1996 was named EVP and chief operating officer.

When Safeway acquired Genuardi’s in 2001, he became president of the company. He left a year later and soon joined the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia’s music and arts exhibition hall, as EVP/COO. He left in 2006 to join Wal-Mart as senior vice president supervising the company’s Northeast store operations.

In related news, Wal-Mart has plans for the large north region (1,307 stores – 911 SuperCenters, 385 discount units and 11 Neighborhood Markets that cover 19 states), which is targeted for heavy growth in 2011 with 81 new projects on the docket. Most of those will be expansions into SuperCenters but there will be 18 net new stores and 18 other relocations, many of them SuperCenters.

Also on the agenda is a new view towards other formats, including new stores that could fall in the 10,000-20,000 square foot range. Wal-Mart is expected to reveal more about its “small format” initiative at an analysts’ conference on October 13.