Updated! hhgregg’s chief retail officer Sam Johnson has left the company.
He becomes the first senior officer to exit the beleaguered chain since it filed for bankruptcy last month.
The announcement came via an 8-K filing, which indicated that he had resigned to pursue other opportunities but would remain with the company through April 15.
Indeed, Johnson left to become retail operations executive VP at Academy Sports + Outdoors, the 225-store sporting goods chain, effective April 24.
Johnson joined hhgregg seven years ago as senior VP of stores and was promoted to chief retail officer last summer as part of recently installed CEO Robert Riesbeck’s new management team. For the next 11 days he will continue to be responsible for store operations, customer relations, the Fine Lines premium appliance business, commercial sales, real estate and visual merchandising.
Johnson came to hhgregg from Sears Holdings, where he served as regional director of merchandising and operations, regional VP of Northwest stores, and small stores VP.
hhgregg is currently preparing to liquidate its stores and warehouses beginning this weekend unless a bidder comes forward by Friday — a development deemed unlikely by Johnson’s departure.
