Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Appoints Retail And Beauty Expert Mara Sirhal As Senior Vice President And General Manager Of Harmon Health And Beauty Stores

UNION, N.J., Jan. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBY) today named Mara Sirhal as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Harmon Health and Beauty Stores, effective immediately. Ms. Sirhal will report to Joe Hartsig, Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer at Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and President of Harmon Health and Beauty Stores.

Ms. Sirhal will be responsible for unlocking the potential of Harmon Health and Beauty Stores, leading all operational aspects of this value-driven business.  This includes retail, online and distribution, as well as developing and implementing an improved customer value proposition to drive strong growth for the retail concept.  Harmon Health and Beauty Stores has a long history providing customers with leading personal care and beauty brands at deep everyday value.  In line with Bed Bath & Beyond's enterprise strategy, the Company plans to deliver a more inspiring, omni-always shopping experience, providing its Harmon Health and Beauty Stores' customers with greater ease, convenience and value. 

Ms. Sirhal joins with almost 20 years of experience in retail, merchandising, store operations, beauty and wellness at Macy's Inc, where she was most recently Vice President and Divisional Business Manager for Leased, Licensed, Retail as a Service and Retail Diversity Strategy.  Prior to this, she held a number of strategic merchandising roles at the retailer, including as Vice President and Divisional Business Manager for Fragrances, Bath and Body Merchandising in the Beauty division.  In this role she was responsible for buying, planning, digital and inventory management, and delivered significant growth in comp sales and market share.  Ms. Sirhal was awarded Macy's Merchant of the Year in 2018. 

Joe Hartsig said, "Harmon Health and Beauty Stores operates in exceptionally strong categories, with the opportunity to grow market share in health and wellness, including through omni-channel growth across both digital and physical properties.  Mara's exceptional expertise in retail, merchandising and beauty categories will help us accelerate our ambitious plans to grow this business, serve customers across the magic moments in their lives, and further unlock the potential across our enterprise."  

Ms. Sirhal said, "I'm delighted to join the Company to help accelerate the transformation underway at Harmon Health and Beauty Stores.  This value-driven concept has huge potential to expand across a number of strong and growing categories and I look forward to joining the brand to help deepen its connection with customers with a truly omni-always shopping experience."

About Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and subsidiaries (the "Company") is an omnichannel retailer that makes it easy for our customers to feel at home.  The Company sells a wide assortment of merchandise in the Home, Baby, Beauty and Wellness markets.  Additionally, the Company is a partner in a joint venture which operates retail stores in Mexico under the name Bed Bath & Beyond.

About Harmon Health and Beauty Stores

Harmon Health and Beauty Stores features an expansive range of beauty, health and wellness products and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.  

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the Company's progress and anticipated progress towards its long-term objectives. Many of these forward-looking statements can be identified by use of words such as may, will, expect, anticipate, approximate, estimate, assume, continue, model, project, plan, goal, and similar words and phrases, although the absence of those words does not necessarily mean that statements are not forward-looking.  The Company's actual results and future financial condition may differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements as a result of many factors. Such factors include, without limitation: general economic conditions including the housing market, a challenging overall macroeconomic environment and related changes in the retailing environment; risks associated with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the governmental responses to it, including its impacts across the Company's businesses on demand and operations, as well as on the operations of the Company's suppliers and other business partners, and the effectiveness of the Company's actions taken in response to these risks; consumer preferences, spending habits and adoption of new technologies; demographics and other macroeconomic factors that may impact the level of spending for the types of merchandise sold by the Company; civil disturbances and terrorist acts; unusual weather patterns and natural disasters; competition from existing and potential competitors across all channels; pricing pressures; liquidity; the ability to achieve anticipated cost savings, and to not exceed anticipated costs, associated with organizational changes and investments, including the Company's strategic restructuring program; the ability to attract and retain qualified employees in all areas of the organization; the cost of labor, merchandise and other costs and expenses; potential supply chain disruption due to trade restrictions, and other factors such as natural disasters, pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, political instability, labor disturbances, product recalls, financial or operational instability of suppliers or carriers, and other items; the ability to find suitable locations at acceptable occupancy costs and other terms to support the Company's plans for new stores; the ability to establish and profitably maintain the appropriate mix of digital and physical presence in the markets it serves; the ability to assess and implement technologies in support of the Company's development of its omnichannel capabilities; the ability to effectively and timely adjust the Company's plans in the face of the rapidly changing retail and economic environment, including in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; uncertainty in financial markets; volatility in the price of the Company's common stock and its effect, and the effect of other factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, on the Company's capital allocation strategy; risks associated with the ability to achieve a successful outcome for its business concepts and to otherwise achieve its business strategies; the impact of intangible asset and other impairments; disruptions to the Company's information technology systems including but not limited to security breaches of systems protecting consumer and employee information or other types of cybercrimes or cybersecurity attacks; reputational risk arising from challenges to the Company's or a third party product or service supplier's compliance with various laws, regulations or standards, including those related to labor, health, safety, privacy or the environment; reputational risk arising from third-party merchandise or service vendor performance in direct home delivery or assembly of product for customers; changes to statutory, regulatory and legal requirements, including without limitation proposed changes affecting international trade; changes to, or new, tax laws or interpretation of existing tax laws; new, or developments in existing, litigation, claims or assessments; changes to, or new, accounting standards;  foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; and other factors summarized in the Company reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update its forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.