Say Weee! to Another Fast-Growing E-Grocer
If you haven't heard of Weee!, you will soon.
The self-proclaimed largest ethnic e-grocer in North America is continuing to scale its operations, this time by hiring veteran executives from companies such as Grocery Outlet, Tesla and Walmart.
The company has named the following new appointments to the leadership team: Amanda Oren as VP, merchandising services and planning; Judy Phyo as VP, corporate controller; and Nitin Jain as VP, financial planning and analysis.
The appointments come after the retailer recently raised $315 million in Series D funding.
"Our expanded leadership team is a reflection of our commitment to aggressively growing our user base while continuing to delight customers with exceptional products at reasonable prices, all while leveraging the power of discovery and social sharing," said Larry Liu, CEO and founder of Fremont, Calif.-based Weee!. "These talented and accomplished leaders bring an extraordinary depth of experience and diverse insights to Weee!, and I'm excited to see what their talents will bring to the next phase of growth for the company."
Oren will help expand product variety, oversee category management and offer competitive pricing. Weee!'s selection currently includes more than 4,000 fresh and shelf-stable items ranging from essentials to highly seasonal merchandise, with more than 150 new products added per week nationwide. Oren brings more than 18 years of retail and grocery leadership to Weee!, including her recent role as VP of operations at Grocery Outlet, as well as senior roles at Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Macy's.
Phyo will play a critical role in scaling up accounting functions as corporate controller in preparation for a public listing. Phyo brings over 14 years of experience including her prior role as corporate controller for Illumio, an enterprise security software company, where she was responsible for accounting and finance operations and transforming processes to support a rapidly growing business. She also spent four years at Tesla and was responsible for global inventory accounting and technical accounting. Prior to joining Tesla, Phyo spent seven years at Ernst and Young in the audit practice.
Nitin Jain is leading corporate finance as head of the finance team to partner with business functions across operations, supply chain, merchandising and marketing. Jain brings 20 years of finance leadership experience to Weee!, including the last 14 years at Walmart where he served in a variety of roles. He helped scale Walmart India from zero to $1 billion, and held finance leadership roles in merchandising, supply chain and operations across Walmart U.S. and its e-commerce division.
Weee! says it has fulfilled more than 10 million orders to date as it continues to engage the broader Asian and Hispanic communities with personalization and social commerce features. The Weee! merchandise assortment includes rare and often exclusive products such as fresh Pacific black cod from Half Moon Bay, Kyoho grapes and air-flown Hokkaido uni. The company currently offers fresh grocery delivery service across 13 states and ships shelf-stable products nationwide.
Based in Emeryville, California, Grocery Outlet has more than 300 stores in California, Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Idaho and Nevada. The company is No. 69 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart operates more than 10,500 stores under 48 banners in 24 countries and e-commerce websites. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on The PG 100.
