SEATTLE Tully’s Coffee Corp. on Tuesday named former Albertson’s executive vice president Carl Pennington Sr. president of the chain to replace CEO John Buller, who resigned along with CFO Kristopher Galvin.
Controller Andrew Wynne was promoted to CFO, and John Rader, formerly president of SoCal Bakeries in Santa Ana, Calif., joined the company as vice president and general manager for supply chain, Tully's said.
Tully's said the restructuring is aimed at "moving the company forward in its efforts to become profitable."
The management shakeup at Tully's follows executive changes last week at rival Starbucks, whose chairman Howard Schultz took over the roles of president and chief executive and pledged to return the company's focus on the "Starbucks experience."
Tully's said Tuesday that 14 corporate office positions would be eliminated because of a postponed initial public stock offering by the operator and franchisor of 142 stores. Tully's products also are sold at more than 400 branded locations in seven states and Japan. Staffing at Tully's had grown in anticipation of a planned public offering, but the offering was delayed because of "overall market conditions," officials said, so "less staff was required."
No reason was given for the departures of Buller and Galvin, but the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday that Buller's abrupt exit from the financially troubled company stemmed from disagreements with Tully's founder and chairman Tom O'Keefe, and it quoted a spokesman as saying that O'Keefe was traveling in Switzerland and unavailable for comment. The newspaper, citing unidentified sources, also said that general counsel Andrew Mun and vice presidents Rob Martin and Dana Pratt had left Tully's.
Separately, Tully's last week announced a new joint venture with Asia Food Culture Management Pte. Ltd. to develop the Tully's brand in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, excluding Japan. Asia Food Culture Management is managed by Kouta Matsuda, the founder and former chief executive of Tully's Coffee Japan.