Wal-Mart Restructures U.S. Operations

In a continued bid to accelerate change with a more nimble structure to improve execution and communication, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is restructuring its U.S. store operations by consolidating its business divisions from six to four.

As part of the move, which the company envisions will be complete by the end of October, Wal-Mart will have 36 regional managers instead of 44.

"As retail and the customer are changing, we're putting people who are equipped to run great stores and understand, embrace and execute change at an unprecedented rate in the right roles and in the right locations," Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg said in a statement.

"Our last field restructure was several years ago and our business has changed over that time. The structure we are putting in place will help improve communication and execution, streamline decision-making and help us accelerate our pace of change," Lundberg said.

Wal-Mart's divisions are currently structured across the West, Southeast, Southcentral, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

This move follows a series of organizational changes the world’s largest retailer has put in place in the past 12 months, including a major realignment of its e-commerce and technology leadership teams in January and a consolidation of functions across the company. In addition, Walmart also reorganized its food leadership teams in July.