The odds that the merger of Albertsons and Safeway will live up to its potential improved significantly earlier this month when it was decided that Bob Miller, the combined company’s executive chairman, would take on the additional role of chief executive officer.

The odds that the merger of Albertsons and Safeway will live up to its potential improved significantly earlier this month when it was decided that Bob Miller, the combined company’s executive chairman, would take on the additional role of chief executive officer.

With more than 2,200 stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia operating under 18 different banners, the food and drug retailer faces formidable operational challenges, challenges that can only be effectively met with first-rate day-to-day leadership. In Miller, Albertsons-Safeway has someone who can provide it.

Miller learned about supermarket retailing from the ground up, starting his career as a bagger at an Albertsons Inc. store when he was 16. After holding a succession of positions of increasing responsibility, he became the company’s executive vice president of operations. He left in 1991 to take the helm at Fred Meyer, a multidepartment store chain in the Pacific Northwest whose annual sales during Miller’s tenure increased from $2.5 billion to $15 billion.

After Fred Meyer was sold to Kroger, Miller in late 1999 took on perhaps his toughest assignment – rescuing Rite Aid, which was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy when he arrived. Through a combination of skillful financial management and improvement in the stores, Miller succeeded in a situation that many industry observers thought was hopeless, stabilizing the drug chain and setting it on the road back to full recovery.

Miller’s return to Albertsons in 2006 came by a circuitous route. After the bulk of the company was sold to Supervalu, a consortium led by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management acquired the 600 stores that were not part of the original deal and asked Miller to serve as CEO. When Supervalu proved incapable of assimilating and rationalizing its vast retail holdings, Cerberus picked up many of the pieces, and in March 2014 it doubled down on its investment in retailing by merging Albertsons with Safeway.

The task confronting Miller and the newly established office of the CEO is formidable. Over the course of two decades, a succession of companies have tried and failed to harmonize various components of the holdings that now comprise Albertsons-Safeway and create an entity that could rival supermarket industry leader Kroger. With his impressive track record and combination of retail and financial capabilities, Miller gives Albertsons the best chance yet of making that happen.