BRUSSELS — Rick Anicetti, the longtime chief executive officer at Food Lion who had recently been named to a new post at Delhaize America, has left the company abruptly following “a series of conversations over a long period of time” with Pierre-Olivier Beckers, CEO of parent company Delhaize Group, the company said.
His departure was not a surprise to some industry observers, who noted that the company's recent management realignment, in which Anicetti had been named CEO of a new division called Delhaize Shared Services, signaled that he might be on the way out.
“His departure was not a complete surprise following the new organization structure that Delhaize announced last December,” Patrick Roquas, an analyst at Rabobank Securities, Amsterdam, told SN.
Roquas noted that Anicetti had been passed over for the top post at Delhaize America, which went to longtime Hannaford Bros. CEO Ron Hodge.
In that earlier realignment, Kathy Green had been promoted to president of Food Lion, reporting to Hodge, who was named CEO of Delhaize America Operations.
Assuming most of Anicetti's responsibilities in Shared Services is Carol Herndon, who had been senior vice president of accounting and finance for Delhaize America. Her new title will be chief administrative officer of Delhaize America, and she will report to Beckers.
Christy Phillips-Brown, a spokeswoman for Delhaize, told SN that the Shared Services function has been reorganized.
“We still have a shared services function that provides services to all of the banners, and that division isn't going away,” she said. “The function that Rick was leading has been reorganized, and based on the new function, it was appropriate for the function to be led by a chief administrative officer.”
The new structure was designed to maximize efficiencies among the company's U.S. banners — which include Sweetbay and Bottom Dollar in addition to Food Lion and Hannaford Bros.
“We are realizing many benefits from the structure already,” Phillips-Brown said.
In her new role, Herndon will oversee finance, information technology, legal and government relations, communications, and corporate development. Hodge will add human resources for Delhaize America to his current responsibilities, which had already included the Shared Services functions of strategy and research, and supply chain and procurement.
It was not clear last week why Anicetti's departure was so abrupt — the company announced that he had left on the day of his departure, indicating that it had not been anticipated. In addition, the company did not issue any farewell statements from him. Attempts to reach Anicetti were not successful.
In a prepared statement, Beckers said, “I want to thank Rick for his significant contributions to the company, both as CEO of Food Lion and as CEO of Delhaize America Shared Services, where he helped to lay strong foundations for Delhaize America's further development.”
