Personnel Updates:
Big Y Foods, Inc. announced that Michael P. D’Amour was named Exec VP; Guy W. McFarlane VP Fresh Foods; Michael J. Galat Senior Sirector of Employee Services and Nicole D’Amour Schneider as Senior Manager of Pharmacy Services.
Andrea Wagner, VP of marketing for Save-A-Lot, will be leaving the company at the end of August 2012.
Delhaize Group has named Roland Smith, the former president and chief executive officer of Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, as President and CEO of Delhaize America.
Giant-Landover has appointed Gayle Shields as its Director of Pharmacy Operations.
Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. has named former store manager Jeff Harrell Director of deli/bakery operations.
Roundy’s has hired two new senior executives: Don P. Hamblen as Chief Marketing Officer and Jessie W. Terry as Chief Human Resource Officer. Hamblen succeeds Ronald Cooper, group vice president, marketing; and Terry succeeds Colleen J. Stehold, group vice president, human resources, both of whom have retired, according to a company spokeswoman.
Pilot Flying J announced that Jimmy Haslam is moving to Chairman and John Compton, former PepsiCo president, is named CEO of the travel center company. Haslam has served as CEO of Pilot since 1994. He will assume the role of chairman of Pilot Flying J and Maxum Petroleum, and his father, Jim Haslam, who founded the company with one gas station in Gate City, Va. in 1958, will be titled founder and chairman emeritus.
Save Mart Supermarkets has hired two high-level executives: Greg Hill as CFO and Eric J. Nadworny as Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Legal Officer. Sprouts Farmers Markets announced that Shon Boney, who has served as CEO since the company’s founding in 2002, will assume the role of chairman of the board of Sprouts. Long-time Sprouts president Doug Sanders will become president and CEO, whereby he will continue to be responsible for all day-to-day aspects of running the business.
SUPERVALU announced that Robert Bly joined the company as President of SHOPPERS, a 56-store division in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. market. Bly will report to Chuck Elias, SVP of Retail Operations. Bly replaces Tim Lowe, who recently accepted a new leadership role in SUPERVALU’s merchandising organization.
SUPERVALU also announced that Kevin Holt has taken on an expanded role as President of SUPERVALU Retail. As part of this change, Exec VP and chief marketing officer Michael Moore will now report to Holt, as will Tim Lowe, who has been promoted to Exec VP of Merchandising. In addition, Janel Haugarth has accepted the newly created position of Exec VP, Business Optimization and Process Improvement.
SUPERVALU INC. announced that Bill Parker has been named the interim president of FARM FRESH Food & Pharmacy. Parker will replace Gaelo de la Fuente who became the company’s president in April 2010 and is leaving the company to pursue other interests. Parker will assume the new role on September 15, 2012.
Mergers and Acquisitions:
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.‘s subsidiary Circle K Stores Inc. has closed on its acquisition of the assets of Orlando, Fla.-based Florida Oil Holdings LLC. The deal consists of 29 directly owned convenience stores with gas stations in the greater Orlando FL area.
Little General Store Inc. has taken over of operations of five locations formerly operating as Prima Marketing/7-Eleven Stores in Washington, Pennsboro, Scott Depot and Hurricane, W.Va., and Albany, Ohio (the company’s first Ohio location). With these five additional locations, as well as one additional land parcel, plus the takeover of the two Prima Marketing/7-Eleven sites in Princeton and Kegley, W.Va., in April, Little General Stores have now taken over a total of eight locations from Prima Marketing/7-Eleven in 2012.
Industry Insight:
DeCicco’s is planning on opening its ninth loctation in Westchester/Putnam in Harrison, NY.
Real Estate:
Heinen’s Fine Foods will open its 18th store in a Chicago suburb where the company has spent $10 million building its first location outside Ohio. The 38,000-sq. ft. store will feature nearly everything the company’s Ohio stores do, but it will not offer parcel pick-up service.
Thorntons Inc., an independent gasoline/convenience-store retailer, will open its first Florida location in Clearwater on the site of the former Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in late November 2012.
Whole Foods Market said it will triple its store count to 1,000, adding locations in smaller markets and underserved communities. The chain, which will open its first Detroit store in 2013, is in talks to bring stores to parts of Chicago and Newark, N.J., which have little access to fresh food
Green Initiatives:
Giant Eagle was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency for the fourth time in five years as having the lowest corporation wide rate of refrigerant leakage among retailers in the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership. The award was announced during FMI’s Energy & Store Development Conference.
K-VA-T Food Stores upgraded to an LED lighting system in vertical refrigerated and frozen cases.
Grocery chain Food Cityshould save $337,000 a year in lighting and maintenance costs following the installation of GE Lighting.
Wawa Inc. installed vertical refrigerated display lighting with Immersion RV30 LED technology from GE Lighting. In addition, GE helped the operator of more than 600 convenience store/gas station locations drive down energy consumption. As a result, Wawa now enjoys combined energy and maintenance savings.
