Dive Brief:
- Pet retailer Chewy named Chris Deppe chief financial officer, effective Feb. 23, per a company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Comission.
- Deppe joined Chewy in 2022 as its vice president of supply chain and operations finance. He most recently served as the head of all corporate and commercial finance functions.
- Prior to Chewy, Deppe spent 16 years with Amazon in various financial roles including as director of finance from 2015 to 2022. Deppe succeeds David Reeder, who held the CFO role for a little over a year before announcing his departure last May. Will Billings has served as the brand’s interim principal financial officer and will continue as Chewy’s chief accounting officer.
Dive Insight:
While Chewy’s board conducted a lengthy external search for a new CFO, it ultimately landed on a familiar company executive in Deppe.
“Following a rigorous process that included several high-quality external candidates, the board and I are thrilled with this outcome,” Chewy CEO Sumit Singh said in a statement. “Chris is a proven finance leader who delivers results, builds strong partnerships, and executes with discipline. His deep institutional knowledge and relentless focus on performance position us well to drive durable, profitable, capital-efficient growth.”
In its most recent earnings, Chewy’s net sales increased 8.3% year over year to $3.1 billion. Autoship in Q3 accounted for $2.6 billion, or 84% of the total, a 13.6% increase year over year.
Alongside the CFO announcement, Chewy reaffirmed its guidance for fiscal year 2025 of an increase in net sales to between $12.58 billion and $12.6 billion; that represents about 6% growth as reported or 8% growth excluding the extra week from last year. Chewy expects Q4 net sales of between $3.24 billion and $3.26 billion, which is flat to up slightly as reported, or about 7% to 8% growth excluding the extra week.
Chewy is seeking growth through expansion into complementary, health-related products. In October, the retailer announced it entered into an agreement to acquire SmartEquine, an equine health brand formerly known as SmartPak. The brand has a subscription-based supplement program, personalized nutrition plans and products that include tack and gear for horse and rider needs.
The American Pet Products Association projected that total U.S. pet industry expenditures in 2025 would reach around $157 billion.
