Dive Brief:
- Fomento Económico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. (FEMSA), parent of Latin American c-store giant Oxxo, has formed a special search committee in its pursuit of a new CEO, the c-store retailer announced in its full-year earnings update last week.
- Executive Chairman José Antonio Fernández Carbajal has been FEMSA’s interim CEO since July 2023 when the company’s former top executive, Daniel Rodríguez Cofré, stepped down after being diagnosed with colon cancer. Cofré passed away a month later.
- Carbajal said last week that FEMSA plans to name a new CEO in 2025. This may create complexities as the company continues its first major U.S. expansion.
Dive Insight:
FEMSA said last week that its Corporate Practices and Nominations Committee “has been diligently working on designing and developing the actions” needed to find a new CEO. During a board meeting held on Feb. 26, the CPNC recommended that FEMSA create a “special committee” to oversee the CEO search. This proposal was approved by FEMSA’s board of directors.
The special committee is led by Ricardo Saldívar, chairman of FEMSA’s CPNC, and includes several other board and CPNC members, according to the announcement. FEMSA is also working with a third-party firm as well as various advisors and specialists on its CEO search.
Although FEMSA said it aims to name a new CEO this year, the company doesn’t appear to have a formal timeline for when this change will take place.
“Upon completion of their evaluation, the Special Committee will submit its recommendation to the Board of Directors,” FEMSA said in its yearly update. “We will communicate the Board’s decision at the appropriate time.”
The CEO search comes as FEMSA, which operates over 20,000 Oxxo convenience stores across Mexico and South America, takes its first steps into the U.S. The company acquired Delek US Holdings’ 249 c-stores across the Southwest last year, and began rebranding the first set of those locations — in Midland and Odessa, Texas — to its Oxxo banner last week.
