Price Chopper Taps Manager
rice Chopper here has named Mark Vanderlinden manager of produce merchandising. He succeeds Rick Smith, who left the company to take a position with Safeway. Vanderlinden had been filling the produce merchandising position for Price Chopper on an interim basis. He reports to John McGraw, vice president of perishables.
Oppenheimer Chairman Retires
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Gary Hammonds, chairman of David Oppenheimer Group, has retired after 44 years with the company.
Hammonds began his career as an office boy for Oppenheimer Bros. & Co., the precursor to David Oppenheimer Group.
He worked his way up through the ranks. The company credited him with being instrumental in introducing the Granny Smith apple to North America and the New Zealand kiwifruit to Canada.
Hammonds served on the board of directors of the Produce Marketing Association and chaired PMA's international advisory council. Hammonds and his wife, Joan, have relocated to England, where he founded a shipping company.
John Anderson, Oppenheimer's chief executive officer, will oversee the company.
Floral Group Names Directors
NEWARK, Del. -- The Floral Marketing Association here has named its 1996-97 board of directors, which took office immediately following this year's FMA convention in Houston last month. Kerry Herndon, president of Kerry's Bromeliad Nursery in Homestead, Fla., was named chairman. He succeeds O. Stanley Pohmer Jr., who has retired from the board. Herndon is joined by 14 directors: Jay Aldrich, chief financial officer for XL Group, Miami; Julie Anderson, floral buyer and merchandiser for Furr's Supermarkets, Albuquerque, N.M.; Pat Bauer, manager of floral merchandising for Kroger Co., Cincinnati; David Blosser, brand manager for Smithers-Oasis U.S.A., Kent, Ohio; Micky A. Byland, director of sales for Micky's Minis Flora Express, St. Louis; John Donati, general manager for Ocean View Flowers, Lompoc, Calif.; Donna Dupuis, director of floral marketing for Kash n' Karry Food Stores, Tampa, Fla.; Dwight Ferguson, president of Floramor, Miami; Gary Miller, president of Milgro Nursery, Oxnard, Calif.; Debby Robinson, vice president of floral for Randalls Food Markets, Houston; Pamela Smith, director of marketing for Nature's Flowers, St. Louis; Charles Victoria, floral product manager for the Pittsburgh division of Supervalu in New Stanton, Pa.; Robert Wilkins, chairman of Distinctive Floral Products, Sewell, N.J., and Virginia Zrebiec, floral sales manager for Kings Super Markets, West Caldwell, N.J.
Besides Pohmer, board members who retired include: Marcy Britigan, general manager for MEI, La Grange, Ill.; Jim Hill, president of CFX/La Fleurette, Miami, and Mike Rempe, director of produce merchandising for C.H. Robinson Co., Eden Prairie, Minn.
