Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel speaks onstage during the 2023 Concordia Annual Summit.
Leigh Vogel | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Amazon has tapped Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel to oversee its sprawling grocery business, the company announced Monday.
Doug Herrington, the company’s worldwide retail chief, wrote in a memo to employees posted to Amazon’s site that Buechel will “take on an expanded responsibility leading Worldwide Grocery Stores” while continuing to lead Whole Foods. Amazon acquired the upscale grocer for $13.7 billion in 2017.
“In his time as CEO, Jason has unlocked our ability to make high-quality natural and organic groceries more affordable and accessible to customers, helping WFM achieve record sales growth and expand to over 535 locations,” Herrington wrote in the memo.
Buechel became CEO of Whole Foods in 2022 after John Mackey, the company’s co-founder, retired.
Amazon’s grocery business was previously overseen by Tony Hoggett. Hoggett left Amazon last October to join Wondery, a food delivery startup led by serial entrepreneur Marc Lore.
In the new role, Buechel will oversee not only Whole Foods, but also Amazon’s larger grocery business, which includes its line of Fresh supermarkets, Go cashierless stores and online grocery service.
Buechel will also join Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s S-Team, a tight-knight group of over a dozen senior executives from almost all areas of Amazon’s business, such as retail, cloud computing, advertising and operations.
Amazon has long been determined to cement itself as a grocery determination for shoppers. Since acquiring Whole Foods, it has launched its own chain of Fresh supermarkets, and it’s taken steps to unify its online and brick-and-mortar grocery operations while appealing to a broader swath of consumers.
The company has further tweaked its grocery division in recent years by shuttering some Fresh and Go stores as part of Jassy’s broader cost-cutting efforts. Last April, Amazon said it would begin removing its pricey and elaborate cashierless checkout system from Fresh stores in the U.S.