Personnel Updates:

Ahold USA announced the hiring of Amy Hahn as its Senior VP of Marketing, a new position. Hahn is a two-decade veteran at Hershey, where she most recently served as Global VP/general manager for direct retail and licensing.

Jewel-Osco said that it has promoted Doug Cygan, a three-decade veteran of the company who most recently has been serving as Director of Grocery, to be its new VP of Marketing & Merchandising.

Kroger announced that Timothy Massa will be promoted to group VP human resources and labor relations.

The Parker Cos. announced the appointment of Michelle Weckstein as Director of Human Resources.

Roundy’s said that Don Hamblen, Group VP and Chief Marketing Officer, has left the company.

Weis Markets announced the hiring of David W. Gose, most recently the Senior Director and regional general manager at Wal-Mart Ohio, to be its new Senior Vice President of Operations.

Financial Focus:

SUPERVALU reported total fiscal sales for 2014 of $17.155 billion.

Industry Insight:

Roche Bros. will open the first location of its fresh and prepared foods focused banner in Weston, Mass., on May 18, the retailer announced. The 11,100-square-foot store is far smaller than the retailer’s other supermarkets, which are between 30,000 and 70,000 square feet. A second Brothers Marketplace is expected to open this summer.

Mergers and Acquisitions:

Casey’s General Store is closing on its purchase of Stop-n-Go this week, and will begin changing signs on the 24-store convenience chain. Three of the stores in North Dakota will not make the switch and will be closed instead.

The Miribito Family of Cos acquired Manley’s Might Mart LLC and its network of 17 convenience stores located mostly in the upstate New York area.

The acquisition of Susser Holdings Corp. by Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) will lead to the creation of a combined, standalone retail business under the Susser Petroleum Partners LP business unit, the companies said. ETP announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Susser Holdings, including and Susser Petroleum, in a unit and cash transaction valued at a total consideration of approximately $1.8 billion.

SUPERVALU INC announced they had each entered into definitive agreements to acquire certain Rainbow Foods grocery stores. In total, they agreed to acquire 18 Rainbow grocery stores, including 13 Rainbow pharmacies and three Rainbow liquor stores in Minnesota. Jerry’s Enterprises, Haug Enterprises, Lund Food Holdings, and Radermacher Enterprises have joined SUPERVALU in executing these agreements. Once completed, the acquired stores are intended to be operated by SUPERVALU, a Cub franchisee or an independent retailer as 10 new CUB Foods locations, two new Byerly’s locations and six locations are expected to be operated under the Rainbow banner. The transactions are subject to customary closing conditions and are expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

Real Estate:

Food Lion plans to remodel 1,100 stores and train its employees to be more customer-centric. Food Lion will also begin to carry more items based on regions and reducing its selections of nonfood items. The company also unveiled a new logo.

Tops Friendly Markets held grand opening ceremonies for a new 52,000-square-foot replacement store in Irondequiot, N.Y.

Hy-Vee plans to open 16 convenience stores, as well as open four new grocery stores, remodel 10 grocery stores and relocated two grocery stores by the end of the company’s fiscal year.

Green Initiatives:

Big Y World Class Markets will install more efficient dairy case doors in 25 stores this spring. The doors allow up to a 70% reduction in energy consumption over the existing open-air customer self-service cases and all case lighting will be changed to LED bulbs

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. said that Kroger Co. plans to replace 40 of its diesel trucks based in Clackamas, Ore., with natural gas trucks, and that Cardenas Markets will deploy 15 natural gas trucks.

Whole Foods Market’s store in Bellevue, Wash., is expected to announce an agreement to deploy a new processor that turns food waste into organic fertilizer to be sold to farmers and consumers.