Stacey Kravitz named new UNFI Canada president

Grocery distributor United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) has promoted Stacey Kravitz to president of UNFI Canada, succeeding Peter Brennan, who is retiring.

Plans call for Kravitz, currently senior vice president of sales for Canada, to take the reins as president effective Aug. 2. UNFI said late yesterday that Brennan will stay in his current role through Aug. 7 and remain with the company as a consultant until October to help Kravitz transition into her new post.

UNFI Canada has its head office in Concord, Ontario. As president, Kravitz will oversee broadline natural, organic and specialty distribution in Canada and lead a sales, merchandising and supply chain organization of more 450 associates. She will report to Chris Testa, president and chief marketing officer of Providence, R.I.-based UNFI.

UNFI Canada's Stacey Kravitz, currently senior vice president of sales, has been tabbed to succeed president Peter Brennan in August.

“Stacey creates highly collaborative stakeholder relationships and has a proven track record of building sales, developing business relationships, managing operations,and leading strategic planning,” Testa said in a statement. “Her UNFI experience and accomplishments — from structuring national sales and customer business teams to negotiating high-profile preferred distribution agreements — are among her many career achievements that led to today’s announcement. Stacey is a recognized industry professional, and we’re excited to have her lead UNFI Canada into the future.”

Related:UNFI hires DHL’s Jim Gehr as chief supply chain officer

Kravitz joined UNFI Canada as vice president of sales in June 2016 and was elevated to senior VP of sales this past January. Before that, she spent nearly 20 years in a range of sales leadership roles at Kraft Heinz and predecessor Kraft Foods, most recently as customer vice president. Last May, she was elected to the board of directors of the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) and now chairs CHFA’s human resources committee.      

A 50-year grocery industry veteran, Brennan has served as UNFI Canada president since joining the company in 2016.

“Peter’s contribution to our Canadian business has been outstanding,” UNFI Chief Operating Officer Eric Dorne commented. “He’s helped position and lead the Canadian business through a dynamic period of industry change and consolidation and has developed and mentored strong regional and national teams to execute our go-to-market strategy while delivering terrific results. We thank Peter for his positive impacts on UNFI, and we wish him all the best in retirement.”