Wal-Mart China's president and chief executive officer Ed Chan resigned on Monday. [File photo]
US retail giant Wal-Mart announced Monday that Wal-Mart China's president and chief executive officer Ed Chan resigned, after the chain's pork mislabeling scandal was exposed.
"Wal-Mart announced today that effective immediately, Scott Price, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Asia, will also serve as interim leader for Wal-Mart China, replacing Ed Chan, president and CEO of Wal-Mart China, who is leaving the company for personal reasons," the company said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.
Clara Wang, senior vice president of Wal-Mart China's human resources department, also resigned, said Wal-Mart.
The resignations come amid the Wal-Mart's Chongqing stores were found out to have been deliberately labeling normal pork as organic for more than two years.
According to Chongqing Administration of Industry and Commerce, ten Wal-Mart stores and two Trust-Marts have sold 63,547 kilograms of mislabeled pork in the past 20 months, generating approximately 730,000 yuan (US$114,500.82) of illegal income. As a result, Chongqing authorities ordered Wal-Mart to temporarily shut down some of its stores and pay fines totalling 2.69 million yuan.
Chongqing Administration of Industry and Commerce confirmed Monday that Wal-Mart had submitted its rectification plan and said if nothing goes wrong, the chain store may resume operation on October 24.
This is not the first executive reshuffle this year. In May, three executives of Wal-Mart China stepped down, including former chief financial officer Rob Cissell, chief financial officer Roland Lawrence and operating vice president Shawn Gray.
Entered China in 1996, Wal-Mart currently operates 353 stores in 130 cities around the country. Chan took over as Wal-Mart China's president and CEO in 2007, when the chain only had 70 stores in China.
"Since 2007, Wal-Mart China has been maintaining double-digit growth, and now, four years later, we have more than 300 stores and 95,000 employees in the country," Chan said earlier in an interview.
