Pacific Enterprises Appoints Trader Joe’s Founder to Oversee Its Ailing Retail Chains
Pacific Enterprises on Wednesday named Joseph H. Coulombe, founder of the Trader Joe’s market chain and a pioneering merchandiser, as head of its ailing retailing operations.
The surprise appointment of the 61-year-old Coulombe, a retail consultant since resigning as Trader Joe’s chief executive in 1989, is intended to provide additional management muscle for shoring up Pacific Enterprises’ ailing store chains so that they may fetch greater value from potential buyers, company officials said.
The Los Angeles-based firm, as part of a strategic plan to return to its roots as parent of Southern California Gas Co., last month announced that it would sell certain retail chains and its oil and gas exploration businesses.
In his newly created position as executive vice president for retailing and co-chairman of Pacific Enterprises’ Thrifty Corp. retailing unit, Coulombe will oversee the Thrifty Drug Stores chain plus Thrifty’s Big Five sporting goods chain and four other chains in Colorado, Washington, Michigan and Hawaii. All but the drugstore chain are now up for sale, and company officials acknowledged on Wednesday that it too may land on the auction block once its profitability is enhanced.
“We are operating Thrifty to try to get a turnaround in the business; once we get it turned around, that’s when we will make a decision on what we want to do with it,” said Patrick Garner, a vice president at Pacific Enterprises.
“Joe Coulombe adds an important dimension to the Pacific Enterprises management team,” Willis B. Wood Jr., Pacific Enterprises president and chief executive, said in a prepared statement. “His experience, knowledge and expertise in the retailing area will be of enormous benefit to the company as it moves to restructure its retail operations.”
Reporting to Coulombe will be William E. (Bill) Yingling III, who will continue to serve as co-chairman and chief executive of Thrifty Corp. and president of its largest retail chain, Thrifty Drug Stores. Company officials said Coulombe’s hiring did not reflect any loss of confidence in Yingling, who has said in interviews that he is interested in buying the drug store chain. Yingling and Coulombe weren’t available for comment.
Coulombe is a highly regarded retail executive who built up the 27-store Trader Joe’s chain by deftly combining its upscale gourmet shop elements with discount house pricing and bare bones store decor. He sold the chain to the Albrecht family of Germany in 1978 but remained as its chief executive.
Coulombe’s career in drugstore retailing began in 1954 with the Owl Rexall Drug Co. In 1957, he started, for Rexall, the market chain that he bought in 1962 and transformed into Trader Joe’s in 1967.
“He is a fantastic merchant,” said Bernard Fields, a former Thrifty executive who is now a private consultant. “Joe (has a) sense of what people want.”
But Coulombe, whose appointment was announced late Wednesday after the stock market’s close, will have his work cut out for him in trying to impress Wall Street.
While most of the market has been booming this winter, investors have driven Pacific Enterprises stock from a high of $43.375 per share last year to under $20 this month.
