Weis Details Exit Pay for CEO Hepfinger

SUNBURY, Pa. — Weis Markets reached a separation agreement David Hepfinger, who resigned as chief executive officer this week, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Hepfinger will receive a payment of $2.25 million at the end of this year, and a $1.75 million payment at the end of 2014. He will also be paid at his current salary through the end of 2014 and receive company health coverage though the end of 2016. Hepfinger is also entitled to various incentive and retirement plans.

Hepfinger, who had joined the company in 2008 and became CEO in 2009, in March had signed a five-year agreement with Weis. The reason for his abrupt departure was not disclosed.

Sources told SN Weis has been beset by slower than expected sales in new stores located in the outskirts of Weis’ traditional markets, including several Philadelphia-area stores acquired a year ago from Genuardi’s. Shoppers in these markets have been slow to embrace Weis, they said.

Read more: Hepfinger Resigns as Weis CEO

“There have been some new stores — not relocations — and some remodeled and expanded stores that did not meet sales anywhere near Weis’ expectations,” Bob Gorland, a Harrisburg, Pa.-based site selection specialist with Matthew P. Casey & Associates, Clark, N.J., told SN. “But their store conditions and perishables have really improved.”

The company through a spokesman said it would not comment beyond a brief press release.