Bed Bath & Beyond executive dies after fall from NY apartment building

A man who fell to his death from a New York high-rise apartment block on Friday has been identified as Gustavo Arnal, chief financial officer of troubled home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond.

The company confirmed his death on Sunday. The New York Police Department said the 52-year-old was found unresponsive at the Tribeca tower in lower Manhattan and was pronounced dead at the scene. They did not comment further.

Arnal joined the retailer in 2020 from cosmetics brand Avon. He had previously held executive roles at Walgreens Boots Alliance and Procter & Gamble.

“The entire Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. organisation is profoundly saddened by this shocking loss,” said Harriet Edelman, independent chair of the company’s board, in a statement.

“I am proud to have been his colleague, and he will be truly missed by all of us at Bed Bath & Beyond and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.”

The company has been struggling for some time with poor sales and rising debts. The home goods retailer ousted Mark Tritton, its chief executive, in June following a dismal earnings report that revealed a sharp jump in quarterly losses and a rapidly dwindling amount of cash on the balance sheet. The company blamed weak consumer demand and said the delayed arrival of orders had led to a build-up of inventory.

Activist investor Ryan Cohen had pushed for boardroom changes and for a sale of Bed Bath & Beyond’s baby goods business after becoming one of the biggest shareholders in the business earlier this year.

However, Cohen then sold his entire stake in the business in mid-August, sending the stock down sharply. Over the past 12 months, its shares have fallen by two-thirds.

At the same time, Arnal sold 55,013 shares in the company, Reuters reported on Sunday based on SEC filings.

The company unveiled a turnround plan last week, designed to improve its balance sheet and drive growth, including $500mn of new financing, 150 store closures, job cuts and a revamped brand line-up. It also filed to sell up to 12mn shares, with the proceeds earmarked in part for paying down debt.

Interim chief executive Sue Gove said the plan represented a “straightforward, back-to-basics philosophy” that would drive growth.

“We are working swiftly and diligently to strengthen our liquidity and secure our path for the future,” she said at the time.

Bed Bath & Beyond also said comparable sales — a popular industry metric — had dropped 26 per cent in the second quarter compared to a year earlier. It expects the overall figure for the year to be a drop of around 20 per cent, based on improvements in the second half.

Shares in the company sank by more than 30 per cent following the announcement of the plan on Wednesday.

Bed Bath & Beyond’s financial troubles have been overshadowed for much of the summer by severe volatility in the company’s share price in a return of the meme stock trading trend that began in the early days of the pandemic.

Demand from retail traders helped push Bed Bath & Beyond stock as high as $23.08 in August, a move that reversed following Cohen’s exit. Shares closed at $8.63 on Friday.

Arnal’s death was first reported by the New York Post.