Amazon Grocery Head Leaves to Join Wonder

Following a year of rapid growth for Amazon.com's grocery business, the retail behemoth's head of grocery, Tony Hoggett, has left the company to become COO of mobile restaurant delivery chain Wonder. 

Wonder, a delivery-focused food hall concept, made headlines in the supermarket industry in 2023 for its $103 million purchase of meal-kit company Blue Apron. Its CEO and founder, Marc Lore, previously served as president and CEO of Walmart’s e-commerce division.

Amazon thanked Hoggett in update posted on its website on Oct. 25: “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 to customers.”

Hoggett joined Amazon in January 2022 after three years at Tesco, where he served as group chief operating officer and then group chief strategy and innovation officer, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Total Retail's Take: Hoggett's move to Wonder was revealed on Oct. 28 in a Fortune interview with Lore.

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. Lore also noted that hiring Hoggett didn't signal a desire to expand further into grocery but is due to his experience opening and operating tech-enabled storefronts. That is useful to Wonder, 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.  

Wonder's expansion plan is a good fit for Hoggett, who oversaw an era of major change and experimentation in Amazon’s grocery business.