News

Former Target, Toys R Us exec launches advisory group

November 14, 2013

Gerald Storch, noted strategist and 30-year veteran of the retail industry, has announced the launch of Storch Advisors, a global business and management advisory firm. The U.S.-based firm will specialize in retailing, e-commerce, consumer financial services, groceries, packaged goods, and restaurants, providing clients with a fresh perspective on strategy, growth, M&A, e-commerce, innovation, competitive dynamics and other management challenges.

Storch, 57, has built a reputation for overseeing large-scale businesses and achieving results during a time of paradigm shifts, such as the shift in the retail industry from bricks and mortar stores to online shopping. As chairman and CEO of Toys R Us, the world's leading dedicated toy and juvenile products retailer, from 2006 to early 2013, Storch led a resurgence of the business and grew the company into a $13 billion global retailer. He expanded the company's e-commerce business to more than $1 billion, drove international growth into China and throughout the world, and oversaw large-scale mergers and acquisitions that included the purchase of FAO Schwarz, eToys and KB Toys.

Prior to his tenure at Toys R Us, Storch served as vice chairman of Target, a $70 billion retailer. At Target he founded and grew the retailer's e-commerce site, target.com, from scratch into a major business. Storch also founded and ran the Target grocery business, founded and oversaw the Target Financial Services credit card business, oversaw Marshall Field's Department Stores, and headed strategy for over a decade.