Bedding retailer names new execs to revive growth

Select Comfort, operator of 490 Sleep Number stores, named several executives to key new roles following a supply chain disruption that cause fourth same-store sales to plummet 30%.



Select Comfort named Suresh Krishna to the role of senior VP and chief operations, supply chain and lean officer, effective April 11. He will report directly to CEO Shelly Ibach and assumes responsibilities previously held by Kathy Roedel. She served as executive VP and chief services and fulfillment officer and will retire effective April 7.



The company also promoted Andy Carlin, currently senior VP and chief sales officer, to executive VP and chief sales and service officer, with additional responsibility for leading home delivery operation.



The personnel moves follow the problematic integration of a new enterprise resource planning platform late last year that led to supply chain disruptions and a steep decline in fourth quarter sales and profitability. Same-stores sales declined 30% and the company lost 43 cents a share during the period ended Jan. 2, due to sales disruptions cause by the ERP system implementation.



"The transition from our 20-year-old legacy systems to a fully integrated ERP platform has been more challenging with far greater customer and financial impacts than we anticipated,” CEO Ibach said at the time. “Many of our customers endured delays and delivery reschedules as we ramped up the new system.”



To rectify the situation, Select Comfort will rely on one new executive from outside the company and an existing leader with expanded responsibilities. Krishna is joins Sleep Number from Polaris Industries, where he most recently was VP and business unit head for Europe, Middle East and Africa.



"Suresh (Krishna) is a highly skilled leader who we believe will make a significant contribution to our future growth and profitability. We will benefit from his global experience, supply chain expertise and his strength in overall operations," said Ibach. "Andy Carlin has successfully led our sales and real estate operations for the past eight years, helping the company more than double in revenue by leading the transformation of our retail store portfolio while delivering significant selling expense leverage. We see great synergy by combining our sales and home delivery under Andy’s leadership.”