Bartell Drugs CEO resigns after two years as first outsider to run the chain

Bartell Drugs CEO Brian Unmacht, the only person from outside the Bartell family to ever run the 127-year-old company, has stepped down after two years on the job.

Unmacht resigned about two weeks ago, according to Ric Brewer, spokesman for the Seattle-based, family-owned company.

“He had some professional and personal things he wanted to take on,” Brewer said. “He had discussed it with the other members of the executive team and family, and decided to move on from there.”

Brewer characterized the parting of ways as a mutual decision and said Unmacht had “left us on a good course for the future.”

Unmacht could not immediately be reached for comment.

The drugstore chain’s executive team, led by Chief Financial Officer Rob Jensen, is in charge of day-to-day operations while the company begins a search for a new president and CEO.

Bartell family members, including George D. Bartell, chairman, and Jean Bartell Barber, vice chairman and treasurer, are “not stepping back into a leadership role in terms of day-to-day operations,” Brewer said.

And the fourth generation of the family is “still fairly young,” Brewer said. “They will be taking some roles in the company, but not at that (executive) level.”

Unmacht, previously chief operating officer at REI, became president at Bartell Drugs in January 2015 and that April was named as the only the fourth CEO in its history.

Bartell Drugs has 65 stores in Washington, with two more slated to open this summer, at Greenlake and Snoqualmie Ridge. The privately owned company does not disclose its revenue or profit figures.

It’s has faced an influx of competition in recent years from CVS, along with longtime competitors Walgreens and Costco.

In what the company calls an unrelated move, chief operating officer Ken Mahoneyleft in January for a job in California. Bartell’s has not filled the that role as the company is restructuring to better align its retail and pharmacy businesses.