OKLAHOMA CITY -- As the integration of Scrivner into Fleming Cos. draws to completion, the combined entity is operating with a vastly changed lineup of executives.
Indeed, it's hard to tell the new players at Fleming Cos. without a scorecard following the merger of the two Oklahoma City-based wholesalers earlier this year.
Changes include a large roster of former Scrivner executives in new positions and many others who have departed.
The only area not yet fully integrated is information technology, formerly called management information systems, a Fleming spokeswoman told SN. It will take several more months to develop common systems. There will also be additional closings of overlapping distribution facilities. The company has stated that eight will be closed in total. So far, five have been announced and four have been shut.
The company declined to indicate how many positions were eliminated at the headquarters staff level since Fleming acquired its crosstown rival in July for $1.085 billion.
However, Fleming did indicate which top Scrivner executives had left following the integration and which ones have secured new positions with Fleming. The former Scrivner operations are separated into a Scrivner Group temporarily until the integration of the two entities is complete.
Scrivner's four top executives prior to the acquisition have left: Jerry Metcalf, chairman; William T. Bishop, president; August Hehmann, vice president and treasurer, and Larry Kordisch, executive vice president and chief financial officer. Metcalf has retired; Bishop has joined Nash Finch Co., Minneapolis, although the company said it has not yet assigned him a title, and Hehmann has joined Builders Square, San Antonio, as vice president of finance and treasurer. A number of other Scrivner personnel have left since the
Fleming acquisition. Those executives and their former Scrivner titles are: Gene Battaglia, vice president of produce merchandising; Stan Erikson, vice president of advertising; James A. Demme, executive vice president of retail operations (and later executive vice president of marketing for Fleming's Retail Group); Leon Holbrook, vice president of distribution (and later distribution director in Fleming's Warsaw, N.C., division); David Richards, senior vice president of store development, and Tom Arledge, senior vice president of marketing. Demme was recently named the new president and chief executive officer of Homeland Stores here; Richards has joined Nash Finch's Southeast division in an as-yet undetermined capacity, and Arledge has joined Randalls Food Markets, Houston, as senior vice president of operations. Scrivner executives who have been reassigned at Fleming include the following: · Terry Marczewski, formerly Scrivner's vice president and controller, now controller at Scrivner Group. · James Barwick, formerly vice president and secretary, now assistant general counsel for Fleming. · Rudy Comchoc, formerly executive vice president of Gateway Foods, now executive vice president of Scrivner Group. · Craig Hoff, formerly vice president of merchandising, now Fleming's director of operations for grocery, frozen and dairy. · Jack Kimberlin, formerly vice president of meat merchandising, now director of meat operations at Fleming. · David L. Brumley, formerly senior vice president of human resources, now vice president of human resources for Fleming retail group. · James W. Mills, formerly senior vice president of operations, now group president of Fleming's IGA East operations. · Gary Rhyne, formerly vice president of retail systems, now holding the same title for the Fleming retail group. · Herb Forrester, formerly vice president of real estate, now director of real estate at Fleming. · Arlyn Larson, formerly senior vice president of management information systems, now director of systems support for Fleming.
· Chris Ahearn, formerly director of corporate communications, now publications editor at Fleming. · Ken Johnson, formerly vice president of store engineering, currently unassigned but working for Fleming. At the time of the acquisition, Robert Stauth, Fleming's chairman, president and CEO, said Fleming would eliminate all duplicate jobs. "Our goal is to strengthen each department," he explained. "So if, for example, there are two vice presidents doing the same job at Fleming and Scrivner, we will determine which one is most qualified to remain a senior officer and which one will come back into the company, which will mean one or several people below them will fall out of the picture." As a result of the Scrivner acquisition, Standard & Poor's Ratings Group in New York has assigned a double-B-plus rating to the distributor's proposed issuance of $350 million senior notes due 2001 and $150 million floating rate senior notes due 2001. Fleming said it plans to use the proceeds to refinance bank debt. The ratings group also affirmed its double-B-plus rating on Fleming's approximately $156 million of unsecured medium term notes, with an implied senior secured rating of triple-B-minus.
