Flagging Wolverine Worldwide made an abrupt change in its executive suite last week and announced the closure of its Boston office by year-end as the company struggles to get its financial house in order and work more on brand building.

Chris Hufnagel is the new president and CEO at Wolverine Worldwide, with the company announcing Brendan Hoffman’s departure last week. By year’s end, all Wolverine footwear brands will be consolidated into the company’s HQ in Michigan. Hufnagel stated that the company will continue to maintain a “creative hub” in Boston in order to take advantage of the area’s creative talent in the footwear industry. Wolverine’s Boston office is currently home to the Saucony brand as well as Sperry and Stride Rite.

Hufnagel, who had been serving as president of Wolverine since May, was previously president of Wolverine Worldwide’s Active Group. He faces numerous challenges at Wolverine, which divested its Keds and Wolverine Leathers businesses earlier this year and is contemplating a sell-off of its Sperry business.

Wolverine has experienced accelerating order cancellations in its U.S. business, which accounts for more than 55 percent of its global revenues, that have been prompted by high overall retail inventory levels in the market. It has also seen a slowdown in new wholesale orders in the market. Anticipated full-price sales to U.S. wholesalers were replaced with lower gross margin shipments to international distributors in Q2.

The company, which intends to make $30 million in incremental investments in its business, including $25 million for brand building efforts under Hufnagel’s leadership, realized a 17 percent drop in Q2 revenues to $589.1 million. On an adjusted basis, excluding sales from sold businesses, sales fell 13.9 percent in the period ended June 30. Net profit fell by 80 percent to $24.4 million. On a brand basis, Merrell sales fell 16 percent year-over-year to $177 million and are projected to slip by high single digits for the fiscal year. Saucony sales rose 2 percent to $142 million in Q2 but are forecast to decline by a low-single digit for the FY. Sweaty Betty sales declined by 7 percent to $44 million and are predicted to dip by a low-single digit for the 12 months.