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PENN TRAFFIC TAPS COMPANY VETERAN TO LEAD TURNAROUND

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Penn Traffic reached into its own ranks last week to name a new president and chief executive officer.He is Bob Chapman, the first home-grown executive to head the company since Tom Ridge presided over P&C Foods in the mid-1960s. Chapman, 53, has spent all 36 years of his professional career with the company, initially working at P&C and later overseeing Penn Traffic's wholesale

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Penn Traffic reached into its own ranks last week to name a new president and chief executive officer.

He is Bob Chapman, the first home-grown executive to head the company since Tom Ridge presided over P&C Foods in the mid-1960s. Chapman, 53, has spent all 36 years of his professional career with the company, initially working at P&C and later overseeing Penn Traffic's wholesale and franchise operations -- a business segment that's expected to be a major growth area for the company when it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Chapman is taking over the CEO title from Steven G. Panagos, who remains the chain's chief restructuring officer after holding the additional title of interim CEO since late last year. Joseph V. Fisher was the chain's president and CEO for almost five years before his resignation last August.

James A. Demme, Penn Traffic chairman, said Chapman's extensive knowledge of the chain's wholesale customers and licensed franchisees will help the company focus more than in the past on its wholesale business.

"We've been a key wholesale competitor for years," Demme told SN, "and with the demise of some wholesale operators in the area and given our historic success wholesaling to independent and franchise customers, we see great opportunities in central New York, Pennsylvania and other parts of the Northeast."

Penn Traffic operates 109 corporate stores under the P&C banner in upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, the Bi-Lo Foods banner in eastern and western Pennsylvania, and the Quality Foods banner in northwest Pennsylvania, plus a wholesale food distribution business that services 78 licensed franchisees operating under the Riverside and Bi-Lo banners in Pennsylvania and the Big M banner in New York, as well as 49 independent operators.

It is the first time in Penn Traffic history that the combined number of independent customers and franchise operators exceeds the number of corporate stores, "and we have the infrastructure to support them all," Chapman said.

Chapman joined Penn Traffic as a part-time employee at P&C Foods in 1968 and was named a store manager in 1974. At the time Penn Traffic acquired P&C in 1988, he was director of store operations for P&C and Big M, a job he held through 1993, when he was named director of franchise operations; three years later Chapman added responsibilities for wholesale operations.

He was named vice president of wholesale operations in 1996 and vice president, wholesale and franchise operations, in 1997, picking up additional responsibilities as general manager of Bi-Lo in 1999 -- the titles he held when he was tapped for promotion last week.

Demme, who was named chairman last September, said he intends to remain in that position as long as the board wants him. However, after working full time since September, he said he plans to reduce his work schedule to six to eight days a month through the end of May.

"Bob brings the tools that will make this company successful, and we believe he's the right person for the job. He brings instant credibility because he's been here and he knows the company."

When Demme joined Penn Traffic as chairman last September, he said he agreed to work on a full-time basis for five months to do three things: stabilize the company, help develop a business plan for a financial reorganization, and select a new CEO and a new chief financial officer. Over the past six months, he said he believes he's accomplished all his goals except for hiring a new CFO.