Roces to Head Wal-Mart 'Store Experience'

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/27/2006 12:00:00 AM

New York —

Wal-Mart Stores is creating a new organization it calls "Store Experience" to delve more deeply into store planning, space management, and the retailer's store-of-the-community initiative.

Santiago Roces, who was most recently Wal-Mart's Korea president, will be leading the initiative. He is relocating to company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

Roces' promotion is one of several appointments that make up Wal-Mart's recently restructured marketing "dream team," explained John Fleming, evp and chief marketing officer, during Wal-Mart's presentation at the recent Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail conference here.

Since Fleming joined Wal-Mart about 18 months ago, the plan has been to "really upgrade the talent and to develop some core competencies in areas around the customer."