Dive Brief:
- Gopuff announced on Thursday that it has named former Amazon executive Maria Renz as senior vice president of its North American business.
- In the new role, Renz will oversee Gopuff's strategy and execution in the U.S. She will start in May and report directly to company co-founders and co-CEOs Rafael IIishayev and Yakir Gola.
- The appointment is part of a new organizational structure for the convenience delivery firm aimed at improving its financial performance. Gopuff in March laid off roughly 3% of its global workforce of around 15,000 employees.
Dive Insight:
The appointment of Renz as head of Gopuff's North American business comes two months after the company named former Booking.com executive Bryan Batista to lead its international business. The appointment of a North American SVP was first announced in a letter to employees last month that outlined Gopuff's new structure and layoffs.
In the letter, which was posted by Business Insider, IIishayev and Gola explained that naming lead executives over its two main operating divisions reflects the company's growth, new key objectives and its aspirations to become a global powerhouse in convenience delivery.
"The new business structure was developed to refocus our workforce on our key objectives and enable our company to think globally, and execute locally," the letter stated.
For the past two years, Renz has been executive vice president of consumer finance and wealth management for banking company SoFi. Most relevant to Gopuff, however, is her more than 18 years spent in various management and executive roles at Amazon, according to her LinkedIn profile. This included a period from 2002 to 2007 when she was director for health, beauty and grocery.
In 2013, Renz became CEO of Quidsi, the e-commerce platform for baby care products that Amazon acquired in 2010. She left that role in 2015 to become vice president and technical adviser to CEO Jeff Bezos, and in 2017 became vice president of delivery experience.
Prior to her time at Amazon, Renz worked in brand management for Kraft Foods and Hallmark Cards.
"Maria has an incredible track record of successfully leading cross-functional teams, strategically executing on new initiatives and constantly innovating," Gola said in a statement.
Gopuff is coming off an explosive 2021, when it rolled out new services, named several new executives and brought in more than $2 billion in funding. The company is the market share leader in the budding convenience delivery market, with a 69% share among first-party players as of the end of February, according to YipitData. The company is currently closing in on $1 billion in additional funding, Bloomberg reported at the end of March.
But the company's leading position is getting pressured by established delivery firms as well as startups touting doorstep service in 15 minutes. Grocers have rolled out their own convenience delivery services in recent months through Instacart and DoorDash. Instacart is now offering to build dark stores to power rapid delivery for retailers, while DoorDash is exploring a similar option and also operates its own convenience service, DashMart.
Last year, Gopuff began providing delivery service for an "everyday essentials" platform through Uber. Earlier this year, Gopuff began delivering thousands of products for U.K. grocer Morrisons as part of a multi-year deal.
Gopuff currently has more than 600 locations, the majority of which are in the U.S. It also operates abroad in cities like London and Paris. According to Thursday's announcement, the company generates an average contribution profit of more than $4 per order and is making market share gains in key areas like New York and London.
