Tony Hoggett, a top executive at Amazon who was brought in three years ago to run the e-commerce giant’s brick-and-mortar division, including its grocery stores, has agreed to join the delivery-focused restaurant chain Wonder as its chief operating officer, the company told Fortune exclusively.
New York City–based Wonder is run by serial entrepreneur Marc Lore and operates 27 fast-casual restaurants in the northeast that offer around two dozen different cuisines or menus to diners out of a single location. The company has partnered with renowned chefs like Bobby Flay and Marcus Samuelsson to sell versions of their signature dishes, from high-end steak to fried chicken sandwiches, to customers who predominantly order from the food-hall-style restaurant for takeout or delivery. Wonder has raised $1.5 billion since its founding, and is planning to open a total of 100 locations by January of 2026. The company is also testing versions of its restaurants inside four Walmart supercenter stores.
Amazon hired Hoggett, a grocery industry veteran, in early 2022 to run the e-commerce giant’s forays into brick-and-mortar stores. He closed down Amazon’s attempt at a bookstore chain and fashion stores, and then worked to reboot the tech titan’s Amazon Fresh grocery stores, in part by focusing on retail basics like store remodeling while eliminating a high-tech system called Just Walk Out that allowed customers to shop and leave without stopping first at a checkout counter. (Amazon Fresh stores now offer a cashier-less shopping experience through “smart” shopping carts instead.)
Hoggett also oversaw Amazon’s grocery delivery businesses, and Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel reported to him as well. Prior to Amazon, Hoggett spent more than 30 years at U.K. grocery giant Tesco, in roles ranging from CEO of Tesco Asia to chief operating officer and then chief strategy and innovation officer of the entire Tesco Group.
Though Wonder owns meal-kit company Blue Apron, Lore told Fortune that Hoggett’s hiring does not signal a desire to further expand into the grocery space. Instead, Lore said, Wonder’s leaders “fell in love with Tony” because of his deep experience in opening and running tech-enabled storefronts and their hourly staffs—Wonder will open about one location per week over much of the next year—as well as his expertise in fresh-food supply chains that extend all the way from suppliers to an end-customer’s front door. Wonder’s meals are partially cooked at a central kitchen, before final touches are completed out of the company’s storefronts. The startup bolstered its delivery capabilities by recently acquiring the restaurant delivery company Relay.
“There are a lot of similarities with what we do,” Lore said.
In addition to running Wonder’s real estate and store operations teams, Hoggett will oversee technology, supply chain and logistics, and culinary engineering divisions as well.
For Lore, a serial entrepreneur, Wonder is the latest attempt to build a giant tech-enabled retail business that could one day sport the size and profit margins for an IPO. Lore previously sold Diapers.com parent company Quidsi to Amazon for more than $500 million, and later the e-commerce startup Jet.com to Walmart for $3.3 billion. He went on to work at each of those retail titans post-acquisition, but has been heavily involved in Wonder since leaving Walmart nearly four years ago.
Asked if the hiring of a top Amazon executive came with any extra significance given how fiercely he has competed with the company while running his past startups, and then at Walmart, Lore demurred.
“No, it’s not like that at all; I have a lot of respect for Amazon,” he told Fortune. “They hire well. [Tony’s hiring] is just a testament to how well Wonder is performing.”
Update, Oct. 28, 2024: This piece has been updated to correct the length of Hoggett’s tenure at Tesco and to provide more details about his duties at Wonder.
Are you a Wonder or Amazon employee with thoughts on this topic or a tip to share? Contact Jason Del Rey at jason.delrey@fortune.com, jasondelrey@protonmail.com, or through secure messaging app Signal at 917-655-4267. You can also message him on LinkedIn or at @delrey on X.
