Big changes are continuing to roll through the top ranks at Wakefern Food Corp. Just days after three C-suite executives left the company, Wakefern announced Wednesday the appointment of Darren Caudill to the role of chief sales officer.
Caudill will oversee center store, own brands, fresh and prepared food departments as well as lead digital innovation, marketing, merchandising and sales and analytics divisions for the retailer-owned cooperative.
Caudill, who joined Wakefern this week, previously worked as senior vice president of merchandising, marketing and sales at United Natural Foods, Inc. He spent more than a decade in roles at UNFI, its grocery banner Cub Foods and at Supervalu, the wholesaler that UNFI acquired in 2018. Before that, Caudill spent more than 30 years with Kroger in a variety of roles, according to his LinkedIn bio.
The chief sales officer role appears to be a new one at Wakefern. A company spokesperson did not confirm if this is the case or not by press time.
Wakefern has undergone a string of executive changes in recent months. In addition to the departure of three c-suite executives last week, it named John Janston as interim chief information officer last summer and appointed Sean McMenamin as chairman in October. These changes followed the appointment of Mike Stigers, who was formerly UNFI’s head of retail, as Wakefern’s president in June.
