Bed Bath & Beyond names Hartsig as chief merchandising officer, president of Harmon Stores

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. announced Joe Hartsig has been named executive vice president, chief merchandising officer of Bed Bath & Beyond and president of Harmon Stores Inc., effective immediately.

The Union-based retailer said on Wednesday Hartsig, who will report directly to Bed Bath & Beyond CEO and President Mark Tritton, will be tasked with developing and implementing its product strategy, including oversight of the company’s omnichannel merchandising, planning and owned-brand strategies. As president of Harmon, he will also be responsible for developing a growth strategy for the cosmetics, health and beauty retailer, operating under the names Harmon, Harmon Face Values and Face Values.

“To rebuild our business, we need leaders of change.  Joe’s experience as one of the leading innovators in retail makes him perfectly suited to help re-establish our authority in the Home, Baby and Beauty markets and we’re excited to welcome him to this critically important role.  Improving the curation and differentiation of our assortment is our number one strategic priority, and Joe will be the driving force behind our ambition to make it easy to feel at home with Bed Bath & Beyond, while also providing the leadership and vision needed to grow our Harmon business,” Tritton said.

Hartsig has more than 30 years of experience in consumer brand development and retail merchandising. Most recently, he was the senior vice president and chief merchandising officer at Walgreens. He’s also spent time at Walmart, Motorola and SC Johnson.

“The opportunity to help rebuild an iconic brand like Bed Bath & Beyond was too good to miss,” Hartsig said. “Mark has a clear vision to reconstruct a modern, durable business model with a differentiated merchandising strategy at its heart.  It is an exciting time to be joining Bed Bath & Beyond and I look forward to working closely with Mark and the organization.”