Price Club shuffles execs to support diversification - membership warehouse store chain

Discount Store News, Sept 4, 1989 by Pamela Meek

Price Club Shuffles Execs To Support Diversification

SAN DIEGO -- Price Co. has reorganized its operational structure in a move that signals the growing importance of its non-warehouse club operations.

The membership warehouse club industry leader based here has named its chief financial officer, Giles Bateman, to a new role as director of non-warehouse operations.

Bateman, whose new position has not been given a formal title yet, has been Price Co.'s cfo since its inception. He retains his executive vice president title, but gives up his financial role in order to oversee Price's diversification into other avenues of growth, including its Price Club Industries subsidiary and its new Price Club Home and Office Furnishings store.

The only warehouse club-related business Bateman will head is Price Club Canada, the four-unit joint operation with Steinberg Inc. of Canada.

Price Club Industries was established in January 1988 to encompass the firm's operations in photo processing, ground meat packaging, automotive services, optical centers, pharmacy and lens-making laboratory. Robert Price, president, said the division will also be charged with "searching out new business activities."

Price Club Industries operates out of a warehouse formerly owned by A.M. Lewis, the grocery wholesaler that Price Co. purchased last October. Another former Lewis warehouse is being converted to a Price Club site while the other Lewis locations were closed to capitalized on their real estate value.

Tap Into New Market

Price Co. diversified further this summer with the opening of two Price Club Home and Office Furnishings stores. Operating under a membership policy and in a warehouse setting, the furnishings locations allow the company to tap into a new market by selling high-end quality furniture.

By placing Bateman in his new role over much of this diversification, the company can now better focus on this arena. Operationally, the heads of the various endeavors now report to Bateman--previously each reported to Robert Price--simplifying the organizational structure.

Replacing Bateman as cfo is Tony Kurtz, formerly of H.F. Ahmanson & Co.

Kurtz, Bateman and the heads of the legal and real estate divisions all report to Price. Also reporting to Price are heads of the West and East Coast warehouse divisions. These two posts had answered to a three-man executive committee composed of Price, Bateman and exec vp Richard Libenson.

Because the former West Coast coo, Helgi Gudmundson, has been named to report to Bateman, Price has appointed executive vp Dennis Zook to assume Gudmundson's role.

The company also announced that executive vp of merchandising Bob Bartlett is leaving his position at the end of the year. His successor has not yet been named.