Retail veteran to lead Goodwill

Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida has muscled into quite a few businesses in recent years.

Under the guidance of President and CEO Tom Feurig, the Fort Myers nonprofit started selling janitorial services and document shredding as a way to diversify away from its retail stores. For example, Goodwill is now the second-largest vending machine operator in Southwest Florida.

You can't underestimate Goodwill's size and reach: If it was a for-profit company, Goodwill would be ranked as the 173rd largest company on the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Naples in the Business Observer's Gulf Coast 500. Its revenues hit $34 million last year, more than three times what they were when Feurig took over a decade ago. It employs about 900 people.

Feurig, a former hospital system administrator, recently announced he would be stepping down in January. Goodwill's chief operating officer, Rick Evanchyk, has been named to succeed him.

Evanchyk is a retail veteran of large organizations. Before he joined Goodwill, he was vice president of finance for the 1,500 Kmart stores west of the Mississippi River with $15 billion in sales.

Evanchyk will start in January, so you can expect Goodwill to continue its expansion into other businesses and operate more like a business than a nonprofit. That's a good thing, because last year the nonprofit helped 37,000 disabled and low-income people in the five-county area that includes Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties.