Walmart Executive Director McMilon will retire in a decade, senior chief appointed Furner

McMilon, 59, is expected to be replaced by US Division Executive Director John Furner,

Furner is 51 and a three- decade-old veteran with experience in the company.

Walmart's shares fell by 1.7% in the morning trade, in part due to concerns that McMilon's decision to leave came sooner than expected, though his term at the time of retirement on 31 January makes him one of the CEOs with the longest service in company history.

“Considering that Mr. McMilon was certainly the best CEO of Walmart since the founder of the company, Sam Walton... the announcement is likely to cause some anxiety to shareholders, especially since the change was a little bit earlier than expected”, said Chuck Grom, an analyst at Gordon Haskett, reports Reuters. com, broadcast Periscope.

In a video on the company's website, McMilon said, “this is the right time to retire because the company is in such a great shape and John is more than willing to lead this company through a series of other changes”.

Walmart said in a statement that McMillon's retirement was a planned transition.

McMilon took over from Mike Duke in February 2014, when the company was facing competition from the Amazon online sales giant. com (AMZN.O), open a new tab.

Since he took the job, Walmart's value has more than tripled to its current $817 billion, while it increased electronic trade efforts. When he took over, the company's global sales in electronic trade had just exceeded $10 billion; in its latest fiscal year, it had exceeded $120 billion.

<x0\almart has performed very well under Doug's direction,” said Neil Saunders, Director of Minority Sales in GlobalData. “has become a much more influential player in electronic trade, integrated new technologies to improve efficiency and has been introduced into new areas as retail media. ”

McMilon, who joined Walmart in 1984 as a full-time collaborator, served in leading roles in all three Walmart divisions: The United States, International and Samés Club. He climbed his ranks to become CEO of Walmart in February 2014, replacing Mike Duke.

McMilon will continue as adviser until January 31st, 2027. Stocks of the retail retailer in Bentonville, Arkansas have increased by 32.3% since he took over, exceeding the S&P 500 index. /Periscope