Dive Brief:
- PetSmart President and CEO J.K. Symancyk has left the company effective immediately, after over six years with the retailer, according to a Monday announcement. Symancyk also left his position on the board.
- In a separate announcement on Tuesday, Signet Jewelers said Symancyk will be its new CEO following the Nov. 4 retirement of current CEO Virginia Drosos, who has been in the role for seven years and with the company for 12 years in total. Drosos will serve as an adviser through the end of the fiscal year.
- Alan Schnaid, who has served as PetSmart’s chief financial officer since 2017, will serve as the company’s interim CEO until a successor is chosen. PetSmart said its board of directors has initiated a CEO search in partnership with an executive search firm.
Dive Insight:
Symancyk is taking the helm of Signet Jewelers, a retailer with 2,700 stores globally and a brand portfolio that includes Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared and Blue Nile, among others. He joined PetSmart in 2018 from Academy Sports and Outdoors, where he had been the CEO since 2015. Symancyk was also previously a director at Chewy and at GameStop, according to Signet’s announcement.
“He is a strong leader with more than three decades of experience across the retail industry and proven expertise in driving strategic growth, focusing on the customer, and developing and sustaining high performing leadership teams that deliver results,” Signet board chair Helen McCluskey said in a statement. “J.K. has overseen the expansion of large-scale businesses with multi-branded portfolios as well as services businesses, and brings important merchandising and operational skills to the role. We are confident he is the ideal CEO to build on the team's progress in establishing Signet as the growth and innovation leader of the jewelry industry.”
As Drosos leaves, McCluskey also praised her work in growing market share by nearly 50%, reducing debt and growing e-commerce sales fourfold. Drosos said in a statement that now was the right time to step down, with a strategy in place and the company prepped for growth.
Also Tuesday, Signet said Chief Financial, Strategy and Services Officer Joan Hilson will take on expanded responsibilities as chief financial and operating officer. In her new role, Hilson will oversee supply chain, Blue Nile and James Allen, and retain her current oversight of Rocksbox, finance, strategy, real estate and the company’s services business. Hilson has served as Signet’s chief financial officer since 2019.
At PetSmart, Schnaid is temporarily taking the helm of a retailer with nearly 1,700 stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico and 200 in-store dog and cat boarding facilities. Aside from pet food and products, the company also offers dog training, pet grooming and adoption services.
Last year, Apollo Global Management took a minority stake in PetSmart, which went private in 2015 in an $8.7 billion deal with BC Partners, which remains the majority shareholder. In 2017, PetSmart acquired e-commerce retailer Chewy for $3.35 billion.
“Alan has been instrumental in building our strategy and we’re confident in his ability to continue to carry it out as we search for a new CEO to lead PetSmart into the future,” Raymond Svider, chairman of PetSmart’s board of directors, said in a statement.
Before joining PetSmart, Schnaid was chief financial officer of Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
