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President named at Albertsons

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BOISE, Idaho — Albertsons Cos. has promoted executive vice president and chief operating officer Wayne Denningham to the post of president. The move was one of a number of management changes the company announced last month.

The company named Geoff White to the new position of president of own brands, and promoted Mike Withers to East Region executive VP of retail operations. Replacing Withers as Jewel-Osco president is Doug Cygan, who had been the division’s VP of marketing and ­merchandising.

Denningham will continue to serve as chief operating officer, leading store operations while taking on oversight of marketing and merchandising, supply chain, manufacturing, and integration. Those functions will remain under their current leadership, reporting to Denningham.

“This is the strongest leadership team I’ve worked with in my 50-plus years in this industry,” said Bob Miller, who remains chairman and chief executive officer. “I asked Wayne to join Albertsons LLC in 2006 to lead our Rocky Mountain Division. Since that time, he’s led three different divisions, helped to negotiate and manage some of our most significant acquisitions, and successfully turned around some of our toughest assets. He’s a remarkable leader with tremendous grocery retail acumen, and I’m pleased that he’s accepted this new role.”

Denningham began his career with Albertson’s Inc. in 1977 as a clerk and worked his way up in the organization, serving in district manager roles in three different divisions before being named division president, first of the Rocky Mountain division and later of the Florida division. He was later promoted to regional president for five divisions of Albertsons, and then he served as executive VP of marketing and merchandising and as ­executive VP of operations for the company before leaving in 2004.

He joined Albertson’s LLC in 2006 and served as division president of the Rocky Mountain, Florida and Southern divisions over the next seven years. In March 2013, Denningham was named division president of the Southern California division following the acquisition of 877 stores from Supervalu, and in January 2015, he became South Region COO following the merger with Safeway. He was named executive VP and COO for the company in April 2015.

Withers, in his new position as executive VP, will lead the company’s East Region operations, while executive VP for retail operations Susan Morris will lead the West Region. Jim Perkins, executive VP of retail operations special projects, is focused on targeted initiatives to accelerate growth. All three executives will continue to report to ­Denningham.

Meanwhile, White will lead Albertsons’ own brands team, including the Culinary Kitchen and Technical Center. He will be responsible for furthering the growth, development and innovation of the company’s own brands products, including O Organics, Lucerne and Open Nature, as well as the extensive line of Signature brand products.

White, who started his career as a general clerk, most recently served as senior VP of marketing and merchandising for Albertsons’ Northern California ­division.


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