The organizational chart for new Mid-Atlantic Division of Albertsons has been released and veteran associates from both the Acme Markets and Safeway’s Eastern Division will play key roles in the new alignment which will become fully functional on September 13. Acme’s current headquarters in Malvern, PA will serve as the new division’s primary headquarters with Safeway’s main office in Lanham, MD serving as a support office.
Heading the new team will be Jim Perkins, currently president of Acme, who has been with Albertsons since 1982. Reporting to Perkins will be Tom Lofland, formerly president of Safeway’s Eastern Division, who will relocate and become senior VP-merchandising and marketing. He began his food industry career with Albertsons in 1990 in Florida.
Also reporting to Perkins will be Bill Crosby who becomes senior VP-operations and will oversee a network of 275 stores. Crosby, whose industry career spans more than 40 years, joined Acme in 2008. He was previously VP-operations.
Other key members of the operations team who will serve as vice presidents and report to Crosby include Brad Spooner, Donovan Ford and Rena Shiles. Spooner, VP-operations, will continue his role of overseeing 78 stores in Acme’s Northern Region. He began his grocery career with Randall’s in Texas in 1982.
Ford returns to the East Coast and will also serve as a VP-operations, supervising the 112 Safeway stores in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC. Ford is relocating from Albertsons in Texas. He had previously served operational stints at both Acme and Safeway. Ford began his grocery industry career in 1993.
Shiles has been promoted to VP-operations, too. Rena began her career with Safeway’s Eastern Division in January of 2016 and moved up the ranks quickly from an assistant store director to a district manager in 2019. Most recently, Shiles was a DM for 20 Maryland stores in Baltimore, Carroll, Howard, and Montgomery Counties. Prior to joining Safeway, she served 26 years in the United States Army, retiring as a colonel in 2015. She will oversee 86 Acme stores in an area covering Philadelphia and adjacent suburbs, South Jersey, Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
On the merchandising team, key appointments and promotions include Jay Schneider who is being promoted director of merchandising, a new position. A 37-year veteran of Acme, Schneider was most recently produce sales manager. He will report to Lofland.
AnneMarie Mozzone now becomes “own brands” sales manager. For the past 14 years, she was assistant sales manager for meat and seafood. Mozzone has been with Acme for 33 years.
Robert George has been promoted to an assistant meat sales manager. He started his career in Las Vegas in 1999 at Lucky’s as a meat clerk. George transferred to Acme in March of this year.
Acme veteran Amanda Lawton is taking on a new role as an assistant Starbucks sales manager. She began her career with Acme in 2008 at the Browns Mills, NJ location. Most recently, Lawton was a Starbucks operations specialist.
Julie Kester has been promoted to an assistant bakery sales manager. She started her Acme career 16 years ago as a bagger in Wilmington, DE at Naamans Road. Most recently, Kester served as bakery operations specialist working in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs.
On the operations team key appointments and promotions include Michael Styer who becomes director of retail support. During his 30-year Acme career, Styer has held a number of positions such as: store director, center store ops specialist, director of shrink and inventory control, assistant grocery sales manager and district manager in Northern Jersey, his current role. In his new position, Styer will work with functional leads in customer service, asset protection and construction to help drive service and synergies.
Joe Hultz will continue in his role as district manager with an emphasis on special projects. He will focus on new store openings, support the tech rollout of forecasting and replenishment, and lead change initiatives in perishable and center store departments. A third generation Acme associate, Hultz began his Acme career in 1971.
Johnathon Simmons is being promoted to district manager at Acme. He started his career 15 years ago in the Bala Cynwd, PA location. In 2010, Simmons served as a summer management intern for Acme. Upon graduating from Penn State, he became an assistant store director in Upper Darby, PA. He has managed multiple Acme stores and most recently he was center store operations specialist for Northeast Philadelphia.
Christopher Sanchez is being promoted to district manager at Acme. Sanchez began his industry career in 2003 with A&P before transitioning to Acme in 2015, when it acquired more than 70 Tea Company units in PA, NJ, NY and CT. Most recently he was center store operations specialist for Acme stores in Connecticut and New York.
On the merchandising and marketing store support team key appointments and promotions include James Walden III, who will become director of food safety/safety. Walden started his career with Safeway 31 years ago as a courtesy clerk during high school. During his career, Walden held the positions of assistant store director, store director, director of retail support, director of risk management and food safety/safety manager.
Alyssa Geddes is being promoted to an AR/HR manager at Safeway. She has been with Safeway for two years as an HR assistant. Prior to this, Geddes held an HR representative role for Six Flags.
Debra Tunney has been named as the new executive admin for the Mid-Atlantic division’s regional office in Lanham, MD. She brings over 30 years of experience in the fields of financial administration, office management, and customer service. Tunney started her career with Safeway 11 years ago as the assistant to the director of construction. She was also named Safeway’s first employee of the month.
In the new lineup, there have also been some changes in the merchandising and marketing department’s sales managers. The new lineup features Pat Hildebrand as grocery sales manager who is relocating from Safeway.
Acme veteran Kamal Persad is sales manager for GM/HHB; Tim Ley, will remain based in Lanham, MD and serve as liquor (beer and wine) sales manager. In the new division’s fresh departments Ricardo Dimarzio is relocating from Safeway to become sales manager for produce. Mike Salisbury will also move north to oversee meat operations. Acme veteran Charlie Bell now becomes sales manager for seafood. Christine Hixon and Angie Marshall will move from Safeway to become sales managers for bakery and deli respectively. Katie Vasquez will become the division’s new floral sales manager and remain based in Lanham. Additionally, Jay Habben has been named sales manager for special projects in the new alignment.
Other key members of the new team include: Acme/Albertsons veteran Sherry Caldwell who remains director of marketing; Randy Wiest, who will serve as senior director of finance; Marie Esposito, is the director of finance; Joe Conway, who will continue to oversee loss prevention; Shawn Dekker is the new director of construction; and longtime Acme executive Marianne Nice, who becomes director of customer service for the Mid-Atlantic division. Greg Herr has been named director of pharmacy for Safeway and Janis Levitt will hold the same position for Acme.
Other key roles include Sloan Nichols, who becomes director of HR, and Joan Williams, who remains director of labor relations. Until his promotion to a corporate senior VP in May, Dan Dosenbach had long served as VP of labor relations and human resources for Acme.
Three current Safeway executives – Ron Stone, Matt Boyd and Kelly Boyd – will remain part of the Albertsons corporate organization but will not join the new Mid-Atlantic division. Stone, who recently was director of inventory management for Safeway, will remain based in Lanham and serve in a corporate e-commerce role. Matt Boyd, most recently VP-merchandising and marketing for Safeway/Eastern, and his wife Kelly, most recently director of marketing for Safeway/Eastern, will be relocating to company headquarters in Boise, ID to assume new positions.
Additionally, there are several other key associates who will either be retiring or transitioning into different roles outside the company including Joe Perry, most recently VP-operations for Safeway (45 years with Albertsons/Safeway); Kim Gray, most recently VP-merchandising and marketing for Acme (38 years with Albertsons); Mary Washinko, most recently deli sales manager for Acme (45 years with Acme); Mike Porte, formerly with Acme’s corporate crisis response team (44 years with Acme); Doug Burton, former floral and produce specialist (44 years with Acme and A&P); Carol Coombs, who spent 46 years with Acme in areas such as inventory control and DSD receiving coordinator; and Dorothy Hamilton, who spent 35 years with Acme in public affairs, government relations and customer relations.
According to Perkins, the new Mid-Atlantic team will focus on five distinct strategies:
*Create a selling culture where associates are energized, excited, motivated and have fun delighting customers.
*Accelerating top line sales growth by building the basket, driving more customers in stores, selling more units, and growing e-commerce and Own Brands business.
*Improve gross margin, lowering shrink and leveraging the distribution center.
*Leverage and lower expenses by focusing on productivity, reducing accidents, leveraging new contracts.
*Enhancing overall culture where everyone is celebrated, has equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute to their own and the company’s success.
The Mid-Atlantic division will encompass 275 stores and over 30,000 associates (approximately 285 at headquarters) in eight states stretching from Connecticut to Virginia. Annual sales will be approximately $6 billion. The Mid-Atlantic division will become the second largest operating unit of Albertsons.
The former Safeway headquarters in Lanham, MD will continue to operate as a regional office. It will house the liquor and floral sales managers as well as store operations and administrative personnel connected to those jobs.
The announcement of the Mid-Atlantic division’s leadership team follows a related move earlier this year when the two Albertsons division combined its warehousing and logistics responsibilities from Safeway’s distribution center in Upper Marlboro, MD to Acme’s larger mechanized depot in Denver, PA, near Lancaster. That transition was completed about six weeks ago.