Best Buy names Jason Bonfig as new CEO, replacing Corie Barry

Best buy said Wednesday that company veteran Jason Bonfig will succeed Corie Barry as the retailer’s CEO on Oct. 31, taking over as Best Buy tries to break a string of stagnant sales.

Bonfig, 49, is responsible for customer, product and order fulfillment and rose through the ranks after joining the retailer as an inventory analyst in 1999. He will become Best Buy’s sixth CEO and join the company’s board of directors.

Barry will remain a strategic advisor for six months following his resignation, the company said in a press release. She is the second longest-serving CEO in the company’s history after its founder, Dick Schulze.

Best Buy’s leadership change comes as the retailer attempts to return to significant sales growth and capitalize on the wave of artificial intelligence-enabled mobile phones and laptops.

In an interview with CNBC, Barry said Best Buy was in a good time for a transition. She said the company is seeing “upward momentum” as customer and employee metrics improve and it enters a phase where artificial intelligence has begun to reshape the world of consumer electronics.

“It’s going to change the way we work. It’s going to change the way people shop, but in our industry in particular, it’s going to materially change the devices we sell,” she said, describing it as a three- to five-year journey.

“It’s important that someone can lead that kind of horizon,” she said.

Bonfig told CNBC that AI would not only refresh the products Best Buy sells, but also open up new categories and features for customers. For example, he says, Ray-Ban Meta glasses didn’t exist before.

“You’ll see us continue to make sure we’re as quick as possible to get these in front of our customers, both digitally and in our stores,” he said.

Barry said Bonfig is well-positioned to take the helm, as he oversees crucial elements of Best Buy’s strategy to generate more sales and higher profits, including its third-party digital marketplace, launched in the U.S. in August, and its advertising business, Best Buy Ads.

In his current role, Bonfig also oversees merchandising, marketing, supply chain and e-commerce.

Best Buy’s CEO transition comes as its sales have lagged over the past four years, which Best Buy has attributed to a slower housing market, price-conscious U.S. consumers and less technological innovation.

The company said at least some of that momentum would likely persist into this fiscal year. Best Buy said in early March that it expected revenue between $41.2 billion and $42.1 billion, up from $41.69 billion the previous fiscal year. It expects adjusted earnings per share to be between $6.30 and $6.60, after reporting adjusted earnings per share of $6.43 for the prior fiscal year.

He said comparable sales, a metric that tracks sales online and at stores open at least 14 months, will range from a 1% decline to a 1% increase.

Barry, 51, will step down after nearly seven years at the helm of the company. She became the first woman to lead Best Buy when she took office in June 2019. She led Best Buy through a period marked by rapid changes and spikes in demand — including a rush to buy computer monitors and kitchen appliances during the Covid pandemic — as well as supply chain issues, high inflation and President Donald Trump’s sharp increase in global tariffs.

David Kenny, chairman of the company’s board, said in a statement that Barry “has guided Best Buy with a confident, steady hand and an unwavering commitment to creating value for our employees, customers, partners and shareholders through some of the most tumultuous and uncertain times we have ever faced.”

Best Buy’s shares also reflected this turmoil. The day she took over as CEO, the company’s stock price was $65.52, but they reached an all-time closing high of $138 on November 22, 2021.

Best Buy shares closed Tuesday at $66.59, bringing the company’s market capitalization to $13.93 billion. As of Tuesday’s close, Best Buy’s stock was up about 7% over the past year and down about 0.5% this year. That compares to the S&P 500’s roughly 37% gains and 3% rise, respectively, during the same periods.

The company’s shares were down more than 4% Wednesday morning.

Best Buy faces some skepticism among investors. Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs downgraded the company’s stock from buy to sell.

In a research note on the stock, retail analyst Kate McShane said the company could benefit from higher tax refunds in the first quarter of the year as customers purchase new devices. However, it said it expects sales and margins to be under pressure for the rest of the year as higher memory costs drive up the price of computers and laptops and consumers shift to cheaper devices.

Additionally, she added, Best Buy’s sales of appliances and other consumer electronics are lagging, even as competitors like Home deposit And Lowes showed stronger sales trends.

Regardless of the economic environment, Bonfig said Best Buy teams “always strive to stay as close to our customers as possible,” whether shoppers are looking for value, convenience or inspiration.

Barry said Best Buy’s business model as a specialty retailer of consumer electronics works best “when we see innovation intersect with replacement cycles” — a dynamic she said is returning. One sign of that, she said, is the company’s sales growth in the IT sector for nine consecutive quarters.

“We’re starting to see the indicators,” she said. “As innovation proliferates, we believe we are well positioned to take advantage of it.”