Breaking News: Ahold USA, Delhaize America Announce Leadership Teams At Operating Divisions, Commercial Services Unit

According to an internal memo, Ahold USA and Delhaize America announced the next wave of management changes affecting its five supermarket divisions (brands) and its commercial services and strategy unit, which is part of its Retail Business Services (RBS) division.

Both Ahold USA and Delhaize America said they are continuing the process of creating brand-centric organizations to ensure they remain customer-focused, close to their communities and are positioned in their local markets.

As noted earlier, by the recently combined international retail organization, each of the brands will have distinctive commercial strategies that are tailored to local markets with dedicated resources, including category merchandising, assortment, pricing, promotions, marketing and format teams. This brand-centric structure is expected to be completed by early 2018.

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In addition, RBS, which was created in January 2017, will seek to leverage its scale to drive synergies and best practices as well as provide industry-leading expertise, insights and analytics to the Ahold USA brands and Delhaize America brands to support their respective strategies, including commercial and other support services.

On April 27, the companies of Ahold USA and Delhaize America made the following officer executive appointments:

At Stop & Shop, based in Quincy, MA, Mark McGowan will continue to serve as president of the division.  Reporting to him will be: Mark Messier, EVP of merchandising; Bob Yager, SVP of market operations and sales; Stacy Wiggins, SVP of market operations and sales; and Steven Kienzle, SVP of market operations and sales. The three operations executives will divide store ops responsibilities for the company’s largest sales and geographical brand, a territory that covers New England, New York and New Jersey. Additionally, Sonja Boelhouwer will serve as VP of strategy and planning.

Tom Lenkevich will continue as president of Giant/Martin’s. Reporting to him will be: John Ponnett Jr., SVP of operations; John Ruane, SVP of merchandising; Matt Simon, VP of marketing; and Manuel Haro, VP of strategy and planning.

At the Giant/Landover brand, Gordon Reid will continue as president. Reporting to him will be: Ira Kress, SVP of operations; Tonya Herring, SVP of merchandising; John MacDonald, VP of marketing; and Mark Adamcik, VP of strategy and planning.

Meg Ham will continue to lead Food Lion as president. Reporting to her will be: Greg Finchum, EVP of operations; Geoff Waldau, EVP of merchandising; Deborah Sabo, SVP of marketing; and Matt Yates, VP of strategy and planning.

At Hannaford, Mike Vail remains president. Reporting to him will be: Bob Schools, SVP of operations; Peter Forester, SVP of merchandising; and Malie Buker, VP of marketing.

At RBS, which will continue to be headed by Ahold veteran Roger Wheeler, JJ Fleeman continues to serve as EVP of commercial services and strategy. Reporting to Fleeman will be: Dave Bass, SVP of merchandising and marketing services; Juan De Paoli, SVP of private brands; Jeff Dichele, SVP of private brands; Keith Nicks, VP of digital, personalization, loyalty and analytics; Matt Nereim, VP of strategy and PMO; Marissa Nelson, SVP of sustainable retailing; and John McGrath, VP of pharmacy services.

Nick Bertram, currently SVP of merchandising for Ahold USA, has taken on a special assignment leading the integration to stand up the brands. Bertram will work closely with the U.S. brand leadership teams, RBS leadership, and the integration management office to enable the planned launch in early 2018.

Some prominent current executives’ names were not included in the internal announcement including: Raymond McCall, SVP of health and household for Ahold USA; Amy Hahn, SVP of marketing at Ahold USA; and Erik Keptner, SVP of sales,  merchandising and marketing for the Giant/Martin’s division. It is not clear whether those executives have been offered other positions that may be announced at a later date, were offered other positions but declined to accept them, or were not offered positions within the new decentralized structure.

The next wave of major personnel announcements is expected in a few months when additional merchandising positions, including category manager, will be offered at the divisional levels. Also to be announced at a later date is the integration of administrative support group personnel that fall under the RBS unit (finance, HR, legal, IT, supply chain and own brands).