Hicks most recently served as president of Canadian Tire's retail unit, the company's largest business with about 500 stores across Canada.

Hicks has also been overseeing the company's e-commerce strategy, an area of focus for the retailer as it competes with giants Amazon.com and Walmart.

Wetmore is retiring, effective immediately, after nine years as CEO - first stint was between 2009 and 2014, second from July 2016.

He is also stepping down as a member of the board and will act as an adviser to the company as an honorary director until the end of 2020.

The company said it appointed Hicks from a pool of internal and external global candidates.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Shinjini Ganguli)