February 13, 2025

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Bed Bath & Beyond CFO Gustavo Arnal died by suicide

Signage outside a Bed Bathtub & Beyond retail retail outlet in New York, Aug. 25, 2022.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs

Bed Bath & Over and above on Sunday said its main monetary officer, Gustavo Arnal, died Friday, after law enforcement had said earlier that Arnal fell to his loss of life.

The New York Metropolis professional medical examiner’s business office claimed Sunday evening the government died from various blunt trauma and that he experienced taken his own existence. Arnal still left no be aware behind and did not say nearly anything to his wife, who was household at the time, resources informed WNBC.

“The whole Bed Bath & Past Inc. business is profoundly saddened by this surprising decline,” the enterprise explained in a statement.

Arnal, 52, fell Friday afternoon from a constructing in downtown Manhattan, according to law enforcement. The legendary skyscraper, recognised regionally as the “Jenga Tower” or the “Jenga Building,” has far more than 50 floors of uniquely stacked apartments.

Unexpected emergency Healthcare Companies declared Arnal deceased on the scene, according to a spokesperson from New York’s Business office of the Deputy Commissioner, the general public details place of work for the city’s law enforcement department.

Arnal joined Mattress Bathtub in 2020 from London-based cosmetics company Avon, just just after the start off of the coronavirus pandemic. He also spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble. In Bed Bath’s assertion on Sunday, the business famous that Arnal “was instrumental in guiding the organization throughout the coronavirus pandemic.”

Considering that becoming a member of Bed Bathtub, Arnal built several buys and gross sales of business inventory. Final month, he bought far more than 55,000 shares at selling prices ranging from $20 for every share to $29.95 for every share, for a whole $1.23 million, in accordance to a submitting. Those people profits have been produced as element of a trading prepare he had signed in April. The document also mentioned he nevertheless held 255,396 shares immediately after individuals most current product sales.

Mattress Bath’s current struggles

Mattress Bath’s inventory is down 43% this yr — and about 90% from its all-time high.

Arnal died two times right after the corporation announced plans to close 150 suppliers of its “reduced producing” namesake merchants. The New Jersey-dependent retailer also said it would be cutting 20% of its staff and added that it had secured additional than $500 million in new funding, together with a bank loan.

The expense-slicing actions come as Mattress Bath’s core business enterprise proceeds to wrestle. The firm disclosed continuing slowing income on Wednesday, with very same-retail store profits dropping 26% for the a few-month window finished Aug. 27 — a greater fall than in preceding quarters. 

Some analysts say that while the turnaround program introduced Wednesday will strengthen the company’s liquidity position, it will not likely be adequate to save Mattress Bath’s company. Raymond James downgraded the stock Thursday, saying that the expense cuts and new funding “only kicks the can down the road.” 

Mattress Tub is just one of the public providers swept up in the so-referred to as “meme trade,” which sees stocks working experience wild selling price swings centered on social media hoopla amid retail investors. In August, Mattress Tub had a number of times with rate moves of additional than 20%.

In mid-August, activist investor Ryan Cohen, a important Bed Bath shareholder, exited his situation. Cohen’s RC Ventures offered its Bed Bath holdings at a selection of costs concerning $18.68 per share and $29.22 per share. Just after the sale, the stock plummeted 40%.

Bed Bath also faces a class motion lawsuit lately filed in the District of Columbia, accusing it of misrepresenting its worth and profitability. Arnal is named in the accommodate, as is Cohen.

Bed Bath informed CNBC that it would not comment on litigation. In an SEC submitting from Aug. 31, the organization pointed out that it was “evaluating the criticism” but that based mostly on latest expertise, it thought the claims ended up “with out benefit.”

If you are owning suicidal feelings, speak to the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for help and help from a trained counselor.

Supplemental reporting by CNBC’s Dan Mangan.