Nov 3, 2021

The stock price of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) increased by over 50% pre-market today. This is why it happened. The stock price of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) increased by over 50% pre-market today. Investors appear to be responding positively to a couple of announcements from the company. Redefined Business Model Bed Bath & Beyond today announced the launch of its new digital marketplace to build on the company’s existing authority in key Home & Baby categories. And the marketplace will expand its assortment of key products from a highly curated selection of third-party brand partners that will be seamlessly integrated into the Bed Bath & Beyond digital platform. This announcement follows a joint press release, in which Bed Bath & Beyond and Kroger Co (NYSE: KR) announced a strategic collaboration to directly offer Kroger customers an extensive selection of the most sought-after goods for the home and baby products carried by Bed Bath & Beyond through Kroger.com as well as a small-scale physical store pilot at select Kroger Family of Companies stores starting in 2022. And the multi-category omnichannel collaboration will include popular items – from bedding and storage to baby furniture and gear – from Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy Baby’s assortment, including the company’s exclusive Owned Brands as well as national brands. In order to further enable the company’s transformation through these growth partnerships and expanded capabilities, Bed Bath & Beyond is realigning its organizational infrastructure and refreshing its leadership team to support its stronger business model. As part of the company’s ongoing redefinition of its business model as it pursues future growth drivers, Anu Gupta has been named Chief Growth Officer of the company. And this newly created position will focus on internal and external growth opportunities. In her new role, Ms. Gupta will be working cross-functionally to continue managing the Company’s business transformation. She is going to be responsible for driving growth through the development and incubation of strategic partnerships and management of an increasingly expanding revenue ecosystem, while helping maintain the core business. Previously, Gupta served as Bed Bath & Beyond’s Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer since September 2020, leading Bed Bath & Beyond’s comprehensive strategy and transformation program and helping to modernize the company’s operating model. And before Bed Bath and Beyond, Gupta held senior-level operational roles at Target, private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC, and The Michaels Companies, among others. Rafeh Masood, the company’s current Chief Digital Officer & interim Chief Brand Officer, has been named Chief Customer Officer, which is also a newly created role combining his digital and brand roles. And both appointments are effective immediately and will report to Mark Tritton, Bed Bath & Beyond’s President & CEO. John Hartmann, Bed Bath & Beyond’s Chief Operating Officer and President of buybuy Baby will be responsible for partnership execution, along with his leadership across IT and supply chain. $1 Billion Three-Year Share Repurchase Program Advanced Bed Bath & Beyond announced that it expects to complete its $1 billion three-year share repurchase plan by the end of fiscal 2021, two years ahead of schedule. And program-to-date, the company has completed $600 million in share repurchases since the end of fiscal 2020. The company now expects to repurchase the remaining $400 million of the program by the end of fiscal 2021, specifically over the third and fourth quarters. During the first 6 months of the current fiscal year, the company has executed approximately $225 million in repurchases with $100 million remaining under its $325 million plan for fiscal 2021. And with today’s announcement, the total expected share repurchase amount for fiscal 2021 has now increased to approximately $625 million, nearly doubling the initial share repurchase plan of $325 million for the current fiscal year. Key Quotes About Redefined Business Model “On my second anniversary as CEO, I am excited and inspired by the change and momentum we have created in this business as we continue to fortify our competitive positioning and customer acquisition strategy. Marketplace is yet another example of how we continue to redefine our business model. We are developing new avenues of long-term profitable growth to allow us to organically build on our existing authority in the Home and Baby categories. We will continue to leverage our market position to drive both customer acquisition and retention.” “With these sales channel expansions, it is necessary to evolve our organizational structure to align with our ongoing transformation. As part of that evolution, we are thrilled to promote Anu Gupta into an expanded role. As an instrumental driver of our new Kroger collaboration, Anu’s impressive background and business acumen, visionary ideas, and successful tracking of our transformation management will help lead our team into the future.” “Rafeh and John have been influential leaders as we have pivoted our business strategically and operationally as an omnichannel retailer. Many of the transformational improvements and capabilities across our digital platforms and supply chain have been a result of both Rafeh’s and John’s invaluable leadership and their new and expanded roles will lead to greater synergy between our business roadmap and customer approach. I am thrilled to see us structuring and driving our business in bold ways through our talent, strategy and execution.” — President & CEO Mark Tritton Key Quotes About Share Repurchase Program “We continue to execute our bold transformation and implement successful strategies that will fortify our near-term and long-term value creation. Today’s announcement further underscores our ongoing confidence in our turnaround, and our ability to simultaneously generate positive cash flow, maintain a strong balance sheet and invest in our long-term growth, all while returning significant capital to shareholders. We remain committed to our capital allocation framework of delivering strong and sustainable total shareholder return.” “As we continue to navigate the third quarter, the corrective and surgical pricing actions we’ve implemented are resulting in a trend toward expected gross margin rates for the period. Sales to date have remained consistent with the September trends we shared on our earnings call several weeks ago. Our focus remains on delivering comp sales growth in the all-important November month, which represents a disproportionately larger impact to our quarterly sales. We are preparing for the peak Holiday season and are particularly excited about the new future sales channels that we’ve announced today, which are our strategic collaboration with Kroger and our own digital Marketplace.” — President & CEO Mark Tritton Disclaimer: This content is intended for informational purposes. Before making any investment, you should do your own analysis.