The annual award was first presented to the late Giant Food chairman and chief executive upon his retirement in 1999 and was subsequently named after him. Manos spent his entire 39-year career with Giant Food and passed away in 2016. The award is given to a food industry executive annually, in recognition of distinguished industry service, leadership and community involvement.
Stigers was recognized with the award at a breakfast meeting held November 12 at Martin’s West in Baltimore, MD.
Mike Stigers joined Wakefern Food Corp., the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the U.S. in June 2023 as its president. He brings with him five decades of food industry knowledge, having begun his career as a part-time courtesy clerk at Safeway in his home state of California.
Stigers has a distinguished track record in both the retail and wholesale sides of the supermarket business, holding executive roles in operations, merchandising, supply chain and fresh. He also has experience on the vendor side of the grocery industry having worked for BASS, a retail automation software company, and for Sterilox Fresh, a food safety company, as regional vice president.
Prior to joining Wakefern, he served as executive vice president of Supervalu’s fresh division from 2019 to 2020 as well as being named CEO at Cub Foods. Cub Foods is a subsidiary of United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI), the natural and organic retailer/wholesaler headquartered in Providence, RI.
Additionally, Stigers has served as the past president of Western Association of Food Chains (WAFC) and past chair of the National Grocers Association (NGA), from 2020-2021. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business for the food industry management program.
Stigers holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Science in Food Industry Leadership from the University of Southern California.
Previous winners of the “Pete Manos” award include Jim Perkins, Albertsons; Nicholas Bertram, The Giant Company; Jeff Brown, Brown’s ShopRites; Ron Dennis, Farm Fresh; Benjy Green, B. Green & Co.; Ira Kress, Giant Food; Jim McCaffrey III, McCaffrey’s Markets; Fred Morganthall, Harris Teeter; Kurt Schertle, Weis Markets; Carl Schlicker, Ahold USA; Scott Karns, Karns Foods;
