Following a year of rapid growth for Amazon’s grocery business, the retail giant’s head of grocery, Tony Hoggett, has left the company to become chief operating officer of mobile restaurant delivery chain Wonder.
Wonder, a delivery-focused food hall concept, made headlines in the supermarket industry in 2023 through its $103 million purchase of struggling meal-kit company Blue Apron.
On Friday, Hoggett announced his departure from the retail giant on LinkedIn after nearly three years in the position.
“I’m optimistic about the work Amazon is doing to improve the grocery shopping experience for customers, and have no doubt the teams will keep the momentum going in my absence. I’ll be cheering you all on,” Hoggett said in the LinkedIn post.
The Amazon executive’s move to Wonder was revealed on Monday in a Forbes interview with Wonder founder and CEO Marc Lore.
In that interview, Lore, who previously served as president and CEO of Walmart’s e-commerce division, said that hiring Hoggett did not signal a desire to expand further into grocery but is due to his experience opening and operating tech-enabled storefronts.
As COO, Hoggett will oversee Wonder’s real estate and store operations teams, as well as the company’s technology, supply chain, logistics, and culinary engineering divisions, according to the Forbes interview.
A Wonder spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a statement released to Supermarket News sister publication Restaurant Business, Lore said, “At Wonder, we are deeply committed to investing in exceptional talent as we strategically shape our company’s future. Bringing Tony Hoggett on board as chief operating officer is key to our ongoing effort to recruit world-class leaders.”
That is useful to the delivery chain which currently operates 27 fast-casual restaurants and aims to have 30 up and running by the end of 2024 and 90 by the end of 2025.
The store count is expected to be nearly triple the 11 locations Wonder had opened as of March 19, according to a LinkedIn post from Lore.
The rapidly growing company had also raised $700 million as of March 19, and Lore said in the post that he is personally investing $100 million in the company.
The company’s expansion plan is a good fit for Hoggett, who oversaw an era of major change and experimentation in Amazon’s grocery business.
Less than a week ago, Hoggett was touting Amazon’s new pilot in Phoenix that brings together Amazon’s three grocery entities — Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon.com — enabling customers to make online purchases from all three in a single order.
Hoggett has also overseen the reboot of Amazon’s brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh stores, which were stalled in 2023.
Amazon released a statement about Hoggett’s departure but did not reveal if a replacement has been named.
“After nearly three years of leading our grocery business, helping guide the organization to new levels of impact, and building a strong team that will continue to make grocery shopping simpler, faster, and more affordable, Tony Hoggett has decided to leave Amazon. We thank Tony for his many accomplishments at Amazon and especially for what he’s delivered for customers,” the retailer said.
Prior to his time at Amazon, Hoggett spent more than three years at U.K. grocery chain Tesco, where he served in a variety of roles, including chief operating officer and chief strategy and innovation officer.
Hoggett joined Amazon in 2022 and oversaw big changes at the retail giant, including its decision to discontinue Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology that used computer vision and artificial intelligence to enable shoppers to take items and have the bill charged directly to their account.
He’s also been at the helm for the recent expansion of Amazon Fresh, which has more than doubled its brick-and-mortar footprint in 2024, increasing its U.S. store count from 20 in April to 52 as of Oct. 15, according to Scrapehero.com.
Amazon opened its newest Amazon Fresh store in Torrance, Calif., on Oct. 24, making it the retailer's 22nd California location.
