Wedge Resigns as BJ's Top Exec

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

Natick, Mass. —

Mike Wedge last week announced his resignation as president and ceo of BJ's Wholesale Club. Herb Zarkin, chairman of the board, was named interim ceo.

Jointly, Wedge and Zarkin said, "While the company has made great strides in its efforts to improve general merchandise sales and customer traffic, overall progress has not come as quickly as we had hoped and expected."

Zarkin added that Wedge's "valuable contributions have helped the company become a 171-club chain with sales of $8 billion."

Wedge was associated with BJ's for 18 years. In 1997 he was named evp, sales operations of BJ's, then a division of Waban Inc. He became president, ceo and director of BJ's in September 2002.

The third-quarter report, released earlier this month, showed net income for the first nine months of $60.2 million, down 21.7% from $76.9 million for the same period a year ago. Sales year-to-date were $5.9 billion, up 4.9% from $5.7 billion, and comparable club sales grew by 1.3%.