A Walmart employee puts out a frozen turkey in Chicago, Ill., in 2019.Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters
Walmart WMT-N has eliminated 1,000 roles as the world’s largest retailer simplifies its operating structure, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Under new CEO John Furner and a reshaped leadership team, the retailer is doubling down on a tech-focused strategy as it woos higher-income shoppers and builds its marketplace and delivery businesses.
“We’ve made changes to simplify how the work is organized, make ownership clearer, and better align roles to the work and skills we need going forward,” said Walmart’s head of global technology Suresh Kumar and head of global AI acceleration Daniel Danker in a memo to employees on Tuesday.
Walmart CEO Furner begins tenure with conservative outlook
The company had moved from organizing separately for Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club, and its international markets to building in a unified way on a single, shared platform over the past year, according to the memo.
Walmart, which became the first retailer ever to hit US$1-trillion in market value in February, has been ramping up a digital transformation to better compete with Amazon.com AMZN-Q, Costco COST-Q and Aldi.
Many of the affected staff have been asked to relocate to Walmart’s Bentonville or Northern California offices, the Wall Street Journal, which first reported about the development, said on Tuesday.
Walmart employs about 2.1 million people worldwide, as of Jan. 31, according to its annual filing. It is the largest U.S. private employer with about 1.6 million employees, of whom 92 per cent are hourly workers.
The company reports quarterly results on May 21.