Editor’s Note: This exclusive Spotlight interview with Krasdale president & COO Gus Lebiak appeared in our April 2026 Krasdale Special Section. You can read the entire issue here.
When Gus Lebiak was named president and chief operating officer of Krasdale in 2021, he already had 40 years of experience in the grocery industry.
Lebiak began his career as a teenager hired by the legendary Stanley Kaufelt at a Foodtown store in Plainfield, NJ. Working for Kaufelt during his high school and college career (he has a BS in Marketing and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University), Lebiak shifted to the wholesale side of the business, joining Twin County Grocers as a buying analyst shortly after completing graduate school in 1991.
He remained with the co-op until 1999 when he was named VP-center store for Allegiance Retail Services. In 2012, Krasdale tapped Lebiak to become VP of its Alpha 1 Marketing division, which oversees the wholesaler’s marketing, merchandising, and retail technology operations. In 2014, he was elevated to become Alpha 1’s chief marketing officer and then to chief operating officer in 2017.
On January 1, 2021, Lebiak was promoted to his current role, replacing the retiring Steve Silver.
Food Trade News: You’ve been deeply involved with the independent retailer scene in Metro New York for more than 35 years. How did your career begin in this market?
Gus Lebiak: I started working for Stanley Kaufelt who owned Mayfair Super Markets, a Foodtown store in Plainfield, NJ. I pretty much worked every job in the store. Stanley was a legend in the retail business and I’ve been very fortunate to meet some other iconic leaders in my career. People like Mel Weitz (owner of regional grocer Melmarkets), Eddie Epstein (founder of Jet Line Products). Brian Harris (generally considered the father of category management), and, of course, Charles Krasne, a true visionary.
After my stint as a cashier, I was promoted to assistant store manager at Stanley’s largest store. At that time, I was studying to be an accountant, working my way through undergraduate and grad school. I worked for Bristol Myers Squibb and Coca-Cola Foods as an accountant during the day, and then I would go run a store at night.
Ultimately, I found that my days would fly when I worked in the stores, but not so much when I was an accountant, but accounting provided a great background.
Food Trade News: You really liked the action?
Gus Lebiak: I loved the action. From Mayfair, I was recruited by Twin County Grocers (the former wholesale co-op of which Mayfair was a member). At Twin County, I held various positions and my responsibilities increased. When Twin County closed in 1999 , I started the Foodtown office (now Allegiance Retail Services) and served as vice president, center store until 2012 when the Krasne family reached out to me.
Originally, I didn’t want to move. But over time, I was convinced this would be a really interesting enterprise to work in.
Food Trade News: Were you recruited here with a specific job in mind?
Gus Lebiak: That’s what makes working for Krasdale so unique. Before I was assigned any specific job, I was encouraged to understand the culture and the way the company conducted business. So, for the first year, I basically observed how things worked. Charles Krasne actually told me: “Come in, and find out where the men’s room is.” Eventually I became chief marketing officer.
Food Trade News: What else did you learn during your first year of observation?
Gus Lebiak: Initially, I did a lot of operations-oriented jobs. I came up with an innovative tag program. I was involved with labor efficiency. I think one of the advantages that I have is that I started in the stores – I have an understanding of what the stores are going through. They are the “Marines” of our business – they’re on the front line. Being part of a store’s network is a big obligation and it helps if you’ve got the experience to understand it.
We deal with store owners that are very good at what they do. I believe it’s hard to even suggest change to an entrepreneur who built their business without the direct knowledge of having experienced it yourself. That’s been a priority at Krasdale – we have a lot of field people who I believe are the best in the business. In large part, that’s because they understand the challenges that each of our customers face – merchandising, pricing, competition, neighborhood issues, etc. Understanding that nuance is critical to our success.
Food Trade News: What do you view as Krasdale’s strategy for survival and growth in the rapidly evolving retail food business?
Gus Lebiak: If you examine how the industry is changing, I’d divide retailers into three categories – smaller stores that often focus on specialty and ethnic, high-end stores that provide a shopping experience; then, you have the more traditional, middle-of-the-road supermarkets who I believe are in danger.
As an example, let’s talk about New York City. How many examples have you seen where a store starts at one demographic and slowly morphs and ends in a different place? And that’s why we have to be good at serving both types of customers. We have seen a lot of our stores that started as being very ethnic-oriented and evolve dramatically as the neighborhood changes and becomes more gentrified. We need to be ahead of those changes and offer our customers products that best suit the need of their consumers. We can help our retailers make that transition.
Another example is the growth of our business in Florida, a market that largely features traditional supermarkets. We’ve been very good at finding the proper locations for our customers who offer products and services that are not available
from the physically larger stores. Again, it’s that type of nuanced perspective that created healthy growth for the Bravo banner in Florida.
Food Trade News: How much of an advantage is it to supply more physical stores than any other wholesaler in the entire Metro New York region?
Gus Lebiak: I believe that’s a strength that we’ve been able to leverage over the years. I think that people don’t realize we service a lot of small stores, even other distributors. That depth, nimbleness, and versatility I believe will become even stronger because it’s going to become more difficult and expensive for bigger companies, particularly DSD suppliers, to service New York City. That potentially allows us to grow, not just by adding more retail customers, but by expanding our product line to build additional revenue.
We also have grown by following many of our customers as they expand outside the New York Metro market. That’s how our Florida expansion began and now we’ve built a scalable model. Using that same mindset, there are opportunities in the Carolinas and other markets on the East Coast.
Food Trade News: Given Krasdale’s diverse customer base largely doing business in the largest and most complex market in the country, what are the company’s biggest challenges that you currently face?
Gus Lebiak: I think one of the biggest challenges is regulations. Insurance is a huge challenge, too, when you’re doing business in New York City. There are so many rules that you need to be compliant with – it’s a complex problem that’s more challenging than any other area I’ve ever dealt with. We have a person-and-a-half dedicated to just helping our customers navigate the government. I don’t think any other company our size has dedicated the resources toward that. And our relations with regulators is certainly not adversarial – our approach is to be proactive so our customers can deal with any potential issue before they become problems.
Another major and growing challenge is dealing with retail shrink. It’s very tough for any retailer to see the rise in shoplifting over the last few years. It’s been particularly difficult for the independents because they’ve got ownership of their own business which they’ve built. Shrink has already driven a lot of other retailers from New York City, but not the independents – they’re determined to fight to save their business.
Food Trade News: Give our readers a snapshot of what a week in the life of Gus Lebiak might look like.
Gus Lebiak: My job as president is very busy and diverse. I deal with everything from snow removal from our trucking company’s trucks, trucking accidents, merchandising, infrastructure issues, and, of course, my main priority of keeping our customers satisfied. I believe being involved in so many different aspects of the business over the years has helped me perform my duties effectively.
As I said earlier, I love the action.
Food Trade News: Look into your crystal ball, what changes do you predict for the Metro New York market? And as it applies to Krasdale, where that growth may come from, both here and as we talked about earlier, let’s limit it to Florida because you’ve got an established and growing business there as well.
Gus Lebiak: I think our opportunity up in Metro New York will come on the physical distribution side because this is a tough market to operate in and we have the savvy and capacity to do it. As I noted earlier, I think we’re going to find other opportunities to distribute additional products. We’ve already had success doing so. A question I often ask myself is, “Who else wants to buy pieces of grocery?” And I think there’s a lot of people in a city of 9 million where we could find even more of that.
Our physical distribution is an asset both in location and capacity and we have a good relationship with the city.
Additionally – and this is very important – a lot of our competition, even on the independent side, will come in and set up your store but they don’t come back. We’re in the stores all the time – that’s a big expense, but I believe it a necessary one because the expertise and dedication of our field team is a real difference maker.
Our customers recognize that and that’s been demonstrated
Editor’s Note: This exclusive Spotlight interview with Krasdale president & COO Gus Lebiak appeared in our April 2026 Krasdale Special Section. You can read the entire issue here.
