SpartanNash names Peter Anjorin vice president, strategy and business development

Grocery wholesaler SpartanNash announced on Wednesday that Peter Anjorin is joining the company as vice president, strategy and business development, a role in which he will be responsible for driving strategic plans for the company. Anjorin will report to executive vice president and chief strategy officer Masiar Tayebi.

In this new position, Anjorin will play a key role in driving growth initiatives for SpartanNash, including strategic partnerships, innovation opportunities and mergers and acquisitions.

“As we accelerate our growth, Peter will play an instrumental role in generating customer-centric innovations in support of our mission to deliver the ingredients for a better life,” Tayebi said. “Peter’s almost 20 years of strategy, innovation and operations experience are a perfect fit with our strategic priorities to create shareholder value.”

Anjorin (left) comes to Grand Rapids, Mich.-based SpartanNash from Whirlpool Corp., where he spent 13 years in roles across corporate strategy, marketing and merchandising. Most recently, he served as head of product strategy for the North American refrigeration business, where he led cross-functional teams in identifying and translating consumer insights into winning innovations.

The appointment follows SpartanNash’s announcement last week that Yu Ying Seah was named vice president of IT global applications. Seah brings more than 20 years of experience in managing diverse global enterprise applications, including programs involving organizational and process change across a broad spectrum of business areas, SpartanNash said. Previously, he spent five years as senior director of IT applications at SC Johnson, where he was charged with transforming a legacy applications technology footprint, and before that over six years at Tyco, most recently as global SAP and business intelligence director.

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Through its core food distribution segment, SpartanNash distributes to all 50 states, supplying 145 corporate-run supermarkets in nine Midwestern states — which make up its retail business unit — and over 2,100 independent grocery retailers nationwide. The company also distributes to 160 military commissaries and over 400 exchanges in United States and internationally.