Express COO to retire

Dive Brief:

Apparel fashion retailer Express announced that Chief Operating Officer Matthew Moellering will retire as of May 5, according to a company press release.
The retailer retained executive search and leadership advisory firm Spencer Stuart to conduct an external search for his replacement.
Moellering has been with Express since 2003 and has been in the COO position since 2019.

Dive Insight:

After two decades Moellering is leaving Express.

Over the years he held a number of leadership positions at the apparel company, and took on interim roles at critical moments.

Moellering served as interim CFO from October 2021 through March 2022 and interim CEO and president for six months in 2019 after then chief executive David Kornberg abruptly departed.

Prior to being appointed COO, Moellering was chief administrative officer and chief financial officer from 2009 to 2011, and CFO from 2007 through 2009.

The company called him an “instrumental member” of the executive team that took the company public in 2010.

Mollering “has been an invaluable thought partner to me over the last three years, offering the full breadth of his experience and perspective, and I appreciate his conviction for our corporate strategy and his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition for his successor,” CEO Tim Baxter said in a statement.

Prior to his time at Express, Moellering held leadership roles with former Express owner Limited Brands and Procter & Gamble. He currently serves as a board member at L.L. Bean.

WHP Global, owner of Toys R Us, Anne Klein and Isaac Mizrahi among other brands, took a stake in Express at the end of 2022 for $260 million. Over the past few years the retailer has run into financial challenges and recently appeared on Retail Dive’s bankruptcy watch list. In its latest earnings, comparable sales declined by 8% and the company reported an operating loss of $30 million.