Giant Food, a unit of Ahold Delhaize USA, announced that Irfan Badibanga will step into the role of senior VP-operations effective November 1, 2020. Badibanga will be responsible for leading all operational aspects of Giant Food including regional operations, store support, strategic store planning and execution and asset protection, as well as people, team, and culture development.
Badibanga brings a strong track record of transforming corporate objectives into bottom-line growth for supermarket, small, and big box retailers, including Walmart, Family Dollar Stores, Winn Dixie Supermarkets, HEB Grocery Stores, and Price Chopper Supermarkets.
“Irfan has been a successful, entrepreneurial leader, driving enormous growth at some of the largest retail organizations in this country,” said Ira Kress, president of Giant. “We are confident that his deep management and operations expertise at both the regional and national level will bring tremendous value to our organization at a time when we are implementing a transformational brand strategy and evolving our culture.”
Badibanga essentially replaces Kress as the regional chain’s stores ops leader. Kress, who had been senior VP-operations at Giant since 2013, continued to oversee ops even after he was named interim president in July 2019 (replacing Gordon Reid who was named president of ADUSA ‘s Stop & Shop brand) and president in May 2020.
Badibanga began his grocery retail career as a bagger and by the age of 24 he was appointed to district manager at Jacksonville, FL-based Winn-Dixie. He moved through the ranks at a variety of supermarket chains, building his expertise in store management, merchandising, operations, omni-channel delivery, asset protection, human resources, and general management.
Most recently he served as senior VP-operations at Family Dollar Stores overseeing 8,000 U.S. stores in 44 states. Prior to joining Family Dollar, he was VP-operations at Walmart overseeing 33,000 associates across a 110-store region that produced $8 billion dollars in annual revenue.
“I am thrilled to be joining Giant Food, which has over 84 years’ experience serving the community, and am looking forward to the opportunity to work with Giant associates who are passionate about serving their customers and helping their community,” said Badibanga. “Consumer preferences are shifting, and at Giant, product excellence, convenience, and value are key. I believe my work experience has prepared me well, and I am excited to join the Giant team as we continue to implement brand and operational strategies to serve our customers best.”