The new owner of Mills Fleet Farm has named a former Wal-Mart executive as CEO of the outdoors-goods retailer.
The new Mills CEO, Duncan Mac Naughton, was chief merchandising and marketing officer at Wal-Mart until November 2014, when he left in a top-management shuffle after five years with the national discounter.
Family-owned Mills Fleet Farm announced in January that it had agreed to sell to New York-based KKR, one of the country's largest investment concerns, in a private transaction that industry sources have speculated is worth around $1.2 billion. The deal closed Monday.
The 61-year-old company was founded in Brainerd, Minn., home of the founding Mills family.
Mac Naughton, a Wisconsin native, will be based in Appleton, Wis., where the company maintains its operations center and most of its staff.
"I am honored to lead Mills Fleet Farm, a true legacy brand in the Midwest and one that I have grown up with since my early days in Wisconsin," Mac Naughton said in a prepared statement. "In partnership with executive management and KKR, I look forward to furthering the opportunities for growth that lie ahead … and continuing to invest in the business, adding infrastructure, stores, and local jobs."
Mac Naughton has 30-plus years of experience at the much-larger Wal-Mart, Supervalu, Albertsons, Kraft Foods and elsewhere.
Hugh Leasum, a member of the existing executive management team at Mills, was named chief operating officer.
