Darren Caudill has joined Wakefern Food Corp. as executive VP-chief sales officer, a new position. Caudill, who had been serving as an industry consultant for almost a year, will once again work with Wakefern president Mike Stigers, who was named the day-to-day leader of the co-op in June 2022. Both executives worked together at UNFI (and predecessor firm Supervalu) for a decade where most recently Caudill was senior VP-sales, merchandising and marketing and Stigers was CEO of UNFI’s Cub Foods retail division. Caudill also spent more than 30 years at Kroger, mostly in merchandising positions.
As Wakefern’s new chief sales officer, he will head up the center store, own brands, fresh and prepared foods departments along with digital and innovation, marketing, merchandising and sales and analytics divisions.
“We’re excited to welcome Darren to Wakefern. His proven track record of success in sales and marketing, combined with his extensive experience in grocery retail and wholesale, will allow us to continually innovate and elevate the in-store and online customer experiences we deliver,” said Stigers.
A graduate of The Ohio State University, Caudill has served as a member of the board of directors for Minnesota Grocers, Kemba Columbus Credit Union and as a member of the advisory board of directors for the Institute for Research in Marketing at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.
In another executive level personnel move, Francisco Alberto has been promoted to VP-marketing and sales at the co-op. He was most recently director of marketing and sales planning at the company, a job he had held for the past two years. Alberto has been with Wakefern for 22 years, beginning his career as a receiving clerk.
The move to bring Caudill on board is part of a continuing reshaping of Wakefern’s leadership team. In August 2023, Stigers named John Jantson, another Supervalu/UNFI veteran, as the Keasbey, NJ-based cooperative wholesaler’s chief information officer, replacing Cheryl Williams, who had been at Wakefern for 23 years, the last seven as the company’s CIO.
Then on January 10, Stigers continued the company’s restructuring with the announcement that three veteran senior executives had left the organization: Steve Henig, who joined Wakefern in 1992 and most recently served as chief customer officer; Bryant Harris, the co-op’s chief merchant, who joined Wakefern in 2020 after previous stints with Save A Lot and Walmart/Sam’s Club (19 years); and Bill Mayo, the company’s chief administrative offer who joined Wakefern in 1995 and has served in the CAO post since 2018