Senior staff set for Ahold Delhaize brands

Ahold Delhaize on Thursday internally announced a slate of executive appointments in support of its creation of a decentralized brand structure for its various store banners.

The “brand-centric” structure, announced by the company in February, would allow for the local brands of Ahold Delhaize – Stop & Shop, Giant-Carlisle (which the company now calls Giant/Martin’s), Giant-Landover (now called Giant Food), Hannaford, Food Lion and Peapod, brought together in last year’s merger of parents Ahold and Delhaize – to develop distinctive commercial strategies in their market areas with dedicated teams devoted to category merchandising, assortment, pricing, promotions, marketing and format.

Those brands will share sourcing and other scale-advantaged services through a central hub called Retail Business Services that was established late last year.

Thursday’s announced appointments – more than 80 in all – provide staff that will be dedicated to the brands as the new structure takes hold, and include the following senior marketing, merchandising and operations posts:

Reporting to Mark McGowan, president, Stop & Shop

* Mark Messier, EVP merchandising
* Bob Yager, SVP market operations & sales
* Stacy Wiggins, SVP market operations & sales
* Steven Kienzle, SVP market operations & sales 

Reporting to Tom Lenkevich, president, Giant/Martin's

* John Ponnett Jr, SVP operations
* John Ruane, SVP merchandising
* Matt Simon, VP marketing

Reporting to Gordon Reid, president, Giant Food

* Ira Kress, SVP operations
* Tonya Herring, SVP merchandising
* John MacDonald, VP marketing

Reporting to Meg Ham, president, Food Lion

* Greg Finchum, EVP operations
* Geoff Waldau, EVP merchandising
* Deborah Sabo, SVP marketing

Reporting to Mike Vail, president, Hannaford

* Bob Schools, SVP operations
* Peter Forester, SVP merchandising
* Malie Buker, VP marketing

The Retail Business Services appointments announced internally include the following, who will report to J.J. Fleeman, EVP commercial services & strategy:

* Dave Bass, SVP merchandising & marketing services
* Juan De Paoli, SVP private brands
* Jeff Dichele, SVP sourcing services
* Keith Nicks, VP digital, personalization, loyalty & analytics
* Matt Nereim, VP strategy & PMO
* Marissa Nelson, VP sustainable retailing
* John McGrath, VP pharmacy services

Officials said the brand-centric structure is expected to be complete by early 2018.