Standard General LP, the hedge fund that purchased RadioShack out of bankruptcy on March 31, 2015, has hired former Dell executive Ron Garriques to be the retailer’s next CEO. Garriques replaces Joe Magnacca, who stepped down a day after the sale to Standard General.
The hiring is part of Standard General’s attempt to revitalize the brand, which has taken major hits over the past few years leading up to its bankruptcy filing in February 2015. In an interview with CNBC, Garriques said the chain would focus on locations in small cities with populations of 5,000 to 100,000. He noted that in these cities, there is still demand for a neighborhood electronics store.
As part of the new plan to resurge the business, Sprint will take over mobile phone sales in RadioShack locations, and will pay the retailer to take up 60% of store floor space plus a sales commission. The retailer aims to drive more traffic and sales by opening Sprint store-within-stores in select RadioShack locations.
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Prior to joining RadioShack, Garriques most recently served as President of the Consumer Division at Dell. Earlier in his career, Garriques was responsible for the Mobile Devices division at Motorola and acted as SVP and General Manager of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region for Personal Communications Services (PCS) division where he drove sales, customer satisfaction and market share improvements. He also held management positions at AT&T Network Systems, Lucent Technologies, PCS and Philips Consumer Communications.
Although the Standard General takeover will impact 1,700 RadioShack stores, the rest of RadioShack Corp. remains in bankruptcy court as creditors negotiate over the company’s remaining assets.
