COVERT TAPPED TO SUCCEED HODGE AT KROGER DIVISION
president of the company's Cincinnati-Dayton Division, will retire at the end of January after 40 years in the supermarket industry, all but three of those years with Kroger. He has been president of Kroger operations in Atlanta, St. Louis and Florida, and became president of the Cincinnati-Dayton Division in 1992. He will be succeeded by Geoffrey J. Covert, who most recently was senior vice president. Covert joined Kroger in 1996 after 22 years with Procter & Gamble Co., also based here.
BJ'S WHOLESALE NAMES ROBERTS TO HEAD REAL ESTATE
NATICK, Mass. -- BJ's Wholesale Club here said John R. Roberts has been named senior vice president of real estate and property development. He will report to Michael Wedge, president and chief executive officer. Roberts has held real estate posts with The Home Depot, Lechmere Inc. and AMB Property Corp. In 2000, he established Roberts Realty Group, Andover, Mass., which specialized in shopping center acquisition and development. It was not immediately clear whether Roberts' position at BJ's was newly created.
