A new era has begun at Weis Markets following the resignation of chief executive officer David Hepfinger late last month. Jonathan Weis has added the CEO title to his duties on an interim basis and executive VP Kurt Schertle has also been given additional responsibilities at the Sunbury, PA-based regional chain.
Both Weis and Schertle also headlined the company’s fourth annual vendor summit held at the BWI Marriott on October 8.
“This summit of top vendors comes at a time of change for us at Weis Markets. We are now in our second century as an American-owned supermarket company. We remain proudly family-controlled and committed to a strong future of sales growth and geographic expansion,” Weis asserted. “We are committed to sales growth and we are mindful of the regionality of our business. We realize that our customers have different needs location by location – ethnic, urban, meat-and-potatoes, whatever. We understand that our model is to provide strong and attentive service at store level along with the brands and products that our customers want.
“Weis Markets is today a financially strong and growing public company with a generally solid and modern store base. We will continue to invest heavily in our support facilities and retail presence in order to stay current and on-trend. But what I want to most strongly emphasize here today is that we will continue our drive to transform to a sales-driven culture. Our competitors selling groceries are everywhere and many of them are very good at it. In order for us to continue to prosper we are depending on you for the tips and the expertise in your categories that will make us all successful. Again, we appreciate your attendance and value highly your critiques and recommendations. The Weis team is here to listen.”
Schertle told the approximately 500 sales reps, distributors and food brokers in attendance that, despite continuing challenging economic times, Weis Markets is determined to build sales by “investing in our future.” Specifically, Schertle outlined the retailer’s increased spending and focus in several key areas including IT infrastructure, customer service, fresh departments, and “meaningful localization,” a term he coined to describe developing plan-o-gram and merchandising strategies tailored to specific stores to meet the needs of the consumers in that trading area. He reiterated Jonathan Weis’ comment about becoming more of a sales-driven organization (a more in-depth overview of Schertle’s comments as well as those from VP-supply chain and logistics Wayne Bailey and VP-advertising, marketing and public relations Brian Holt can be read beginning on page ?? in the Taking Stock column).
While assuming the interim CEO role at Weis, the company his grandfather and grand-uncle founded in 1912, Jonathan Weis will remain vice chairman of the 164 store chain. His father, Robert Weis, will remain chairman.
With his departure as chief executive, Hepfinger has also resigned from Weis’ board of directors, effective September 23.
“We thank Dave for his service and contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors,” said Jonathan Weis, who will now also oversee the real estate/store development, finance and human resources teams.
Additionally, until the corporate reorganization is complete, Schertle, executive VP of sales and merchandising, will also supervise store operations and its operations support team.
According to papers Weis filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to Weis’ separation agreement with Hepfinger, the former chief executive will receive a payment of $2.25 million at the end of this year, and another payment of $1.75 million at the end of 2014. He will also be paid at his current salary through the end of 2014 and receive company health coverage through the end of 2016. As part of the separation deal, Hepfinger is also entitled to several incentive and retirement plans. The 55-year old industry executive had signed a new five-year agreement with Weis in March.
Hepfinger joined Weis Markets as president and chief operating officer (COO) in March 2008. He added the duties of chief executive officer in 2009, replacing the retiring Norm Rich. Hepfinger began his career at Price Chopper, based in Rotterdam, NY, starting as a night dairy clerk while in high school. Earlier in his 32-year career with Price Chopper, he worked as a department head, store manager and district manager before entering senior management. He subsequently served as the company’s vice president of merchandising, vice president of retailing operations and regional vice president.
Schertle joined Weis as vice president of sales and merchandising in 2009. He was made an executive VP in July 2012. He has more than 20 years of food retailing experience, including with Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, where he last worked as a senior vice president of marketing and merchandising. Schertle began his career with Basics Food Stores, working at store level before being promoted to store manager. Schertle moved up through the company, which eventually became Metro Food Markets, holding positions such as pricing director, director of GM/HBC, grocery director and vice president of grocery. When Metro was consolidated into the Shoppers organization, he served as grocery director of the combined organization before being promoted to vice president of grocery. He had left the supermarket industry for a brief stint in another retail business before taking the position at Weis Markets.