Walgreens' new chief merchant instrumental in introducing JBP at Sam's
Walgreens' management team following the Alliance Boots merger is in place following the appointment of Linda Filler to the chief merchant position. Filler will be a strong addition to the team Alex Gourlay, currently Walgreens president of customer experience and daily living, and president-elect of Walgreens, is building.
Filler has a robust retail pedigree, most recently as president of Claire’s Stores, a fun retailer targeting the tween market with fashionable jewelry and accessories. Prior to Claire’s, Filler was EVP and chief merchandising officer for Sam’s Club, where she led the owned brand strategy. She also held EVP positions at Walmart and Kraft Foods Group, and leadership positions of increasing responsibility at Hanes Brands in the Sara Lee Corp.
According to DSN's sister publication Retailing Today, Filler was instrumental in bringing joint business planning to Sam's Club and was highly regarded among suppliers.
"We've instituted a new process at Sam's Club with select suppliers, joint business planning, Sam's Club style," Filler (then known as Linda Hefner) told analysts in October 2011. "[JBP at Sam's Club] is a little different than sometimes joint business planning is referred to in the industry with a real focus on driving transformational strategic change with our partners in these three priority areas - product and packaging innovation, according to our members' needs; supply chain efficiencies across the whole value chain that we can then reinvest on behalf of our members in a variety of ways; and some of those are with business building opportunities," she said. "And that might mean coinvesting in eValues or in marketing outreach to our members to tell them about great merchandise we have coming their way or in a great demo in club to encourage sampling and trial of new products that we're introducing."
Filler even implemented a JBP-like process with Sam's Club's smaller suppliers to help differentiate the club's merchandising mix.
Retailing Today's Mike Troy interviewed Filler on the success of the program in 2012. In that interview, Filler shared that the JBP better aligned the internal service departments of supplier partners with Sam's Club's corresponding departments; created a shared knowledge of who Sam's Club's members were and what influenced their purchase decisions on a category-by-category basis; and helped differentiate Sam's Club's product mix from other mass merchants.
Walgreens is likewise committed to a joint business planning process. The Chicago retailer was one of the contributors to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores' best practice report on joint business planning titled, "Creating Value Together."
The appointment of Filler as chief merchant rounds out Gourlay's team. Mark Wagner will take on a new role as president of business operations and will be responsible for creating a customer-focused organization that supports Walgreens' stores, eliminates waste and simplifies the work flow. Brad Fluegel will become SVP chief strategy and business development officer. In addition to leading strategy for Walgreens, Fluegel will help develop and implement Walgreens' healthcare clinic, clinical office and healthcare innovation strategies. Richard Ashworth will be president of retail and pharmacy operations and will assume responsibility for the field organization to implement a single customer plan and deliver customer care through Walgreens' community locations. And Sona Chawla, president and digital and chief marketing officer, will continue in that role.