Albertsons Names Geoff White as New Chief Merchant

Albertsons Cos. has promoted Geoff White to EVP and chief merchandising officer, fulfilling a void created when Shane Sampson resigned last week.

White was president of Albertsons’ Own Brands division since 2017.

Under White’s leadership, Own Brands penetration grew from 23% in fiscal 2017 to 25.3% in Albertsons Cos. most recent reported quarter.

O Organics and Open Nature represent 23.6% of the total natural and organic sales at the company, a 152-basis point growth from first-quarter 2018. The Signature Reserved line, featuring globally sourced ingredients, also launched under White’s watch.

“Geoff is a customer-centric leader that brings a unique combination of creativity and analytics to achieve growth,” Vivek Sankaran, president and CEO of the Boise, Idaho-based retailer, said in a release. “I look forward to working with him to transform our merchandising capabilities.”

Geoff White

White began his career with the company as a general clerk at a Safeway store in Burnaby, British Columbia, in 1981. He eventually became director of Canadian produce operations for 210 stores. White held leadership roles in produce, dairy, frozen, deli/foodservice, produce, floral and branded concepts at the Safeway corporate office from 2004 to 2015.

In 2015, he was named SVP of marketing and merchandising for the Northern California division, and in 2017, he was appointed president of the company’s Own Brands team.

Sampson departed the company last week after having served as its chief merchant since 2015.