Harold Sells, a former Woolworth CEO who is credited with helping launch the Foot Locker chain in 1974, has passed away at the age of 92.
According to an official obituary, Sells joined Kinney Shoes in the mid-forties in his first job out of high school and in 1954 he was selected to open the first store in Van Nuys, CA. Sells joined the corporate office in New York City in 1961, shortly before Woolworth purchased Kinney.
By 1966, Sells was promoted to vice president of real estate and construction, helping to create various specialty stores including the athletic shoe store, Foot Locker that soon became Woolworth’s primary growth vehicle.
He took over as senior vice president of international operations in 1982 and just a year later, was appointed president and COO of all Woolworth operations. Then, in 1986, Sells was named chairman and CEO of the Woolworth Corporation. During his decade as president, chairman, and CEO of Woolworth, the company had the highest increase in its stock price of all other Dow Jones companies. In 1993, Sells retired at age 65.
Woolworth changed its corporate name to Venator in 1998 as the flagship Woolworth chain fell into decline and then changed the corporate name to Foot Locker in 2001.
An obit in the Wall Street Journal credited Sells with transforming “Woolworth from a sleepy general merchandiser to a specialty retailer. Many of the company’s experiments—such as Face Fantasies for cosmetics and Silk & Satin for lingerie—didn’t work out, but the strategy saved the company from oblivion.”
