EXECUTIVES CHANGES 1998

Exec VP Retiring From Wegmans

s Food Markets here said Robert J. Hughes, executive vice president of store operations, will retire effective Dec. 31. The company has named Jack DePeters, currently director of grocery, dairy and frozen foods, the new executive vice president.

Also effective Dec. 31, Dave D'Arezzo, will succeed DePeters as director of grocery, dairy and frozen foods. D'Arezzo is currently a division manager of six Rochester stores. Both DePeters and D'Arezzo have begun the transition to their new assignments, the company said.

Hughes, 62, who has been with Wegmans since 1952, became a store manager in 1957 and was named director of operations in 1972.

He was promoted to vice president of store operations in 1980 and named to his current post last year. DePeters, 48, joined Wegmans in 1966 and, until 1982, when he was named head grocery buyer and director of the Wegmans brand, held a variety of positions, including store manager and general merchandise buyer.

He was named director of grocery, dairy and frozen foods In 1986.

D'Arezzo, 39, has been with Wegmans since 1994, when he joined as a group manager in the grocery department. He began working in store operations last year, first as a store manager. Before joining the company, D'Arezzo was an area marketing manager for the Pepsi-Cola Co. Prior to that, he owned and operated Dave's IGA in San Lorenzo, Calif.

DePeters will report to Danny Wegman, president, and D'Arezzo will report to Don Haggstrom, vice president of merchandising.

Wegmans operates 53 superstores in northern New York State and eastern Pennsylvania.

Bernish Says Goodbye to Kroger

CINCINNATI -- Paul Bernish said last week he has left Kroger Co. here as director of public relations and the company's corporate spokesman after 18 years to launch his own public relations firm.

He said Kroger has retained Bernish Communications Associates as a consultant, with Bernish continuing the handle the company's public relations. The firm will specialize in advising clients in media relations, crisis management, consumer affairs and government and community relations, Bernish said.

"For a corporate PR director, there's no better place to work than Kroger," Bernish said. "I simply decided that the timing was right to go out on my own and work on a broader canvas."

Bernish said his company has formed strategic alliances with two other firms with strong retail links: OK Communications, Washington D.C., headed by Oscar Katov, a former Food Marketing Institute executive; and locally based Backley & Gingrich Advertising, which provides advertising services to three Kroger divisions as well as to Pueblo International, Carolina, Puerto Rico.

Bernish joined Kroger in 1981 after working as a special assistant to the undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce during the Carter Administration. He had previously worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The Charlotte Observer.