New CEO for Price Chopper/Market 32 parent company
The Golub Corporation -- the privately-held parent company of Price Chopper/Market 32 based in Schenectady -- announced Wednesday that it has a new CEO. And notably, the person is not a Golub.
Scott Grimmett, who had been the company chief operating officer (he was the first non-Golub to hold that role), is succeeding Jerry Golub in the CEO role. Grimmett (that's him on the right) joined the Golub Corp in 2012 after working for Safeway for 37 years. He's been part of the company succession plan since he was hired, according to a press release.
Press release blurbage:
"This is an exciting time for our company," said Neil Golub, chairman of the board. "While international conglomerates and Wall St. continue to consolidate our industry, we are investing in our future as a strong, American-owned, family-built regional chain. The design work that we invested in Market Bistro (circa 2010-2014), coupled with the brand-defining innovation that has given rise to our first few Market 32 concept stores has not only laid the groundwork for our continued growth, but also fueled the acceleration of our plans to modernize our stores under the Market 32 banner. "
Jerry Golub is now vice chair of the company's board and will be leading a committee focused on accelerating the switch from the Price Chopper brand to Market 32, according to the press release.
(Jerry Golub replaced Neil Golub -- they're cousins -- as CEO in 2012. As it happens, when the switch was announced in 2011, the company also announced it was hiring Grimmett as COO.) [Daily Gazette 2011]
One bio bit about Grimmett: He started in the supermarket business as a part-time clerk at a Safeway in Seattle. [Safeway press release 2003]
Price Chopper is, of course, a major player in the local supermarket scene (it has 136 stores across six states in the Northeast). And it's one of the Capital Region's 10 biggest private employers.
About a year-and-a-half ago the Golub Corp announced it would be switching the name of Price Chopper to Market 32, a much-discussed change that's been slowly been rolling out as the company remodels its stores. Notable at the time (at least it was to us) was that Jerry Golub took to Facebook to personally respond to questions about the name change. It'll be interesting to see how Grimmett fills the role as the head of the hometown company.
Earlier on AOA:
+ Price Chopper is rebranding itself as Market 32
+ Price Chopper CEO responds to questions about Market 32 switch
+ Checking out the new Price Chopper Market Bistro
photo via Golub Corporation
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Comments
I am still waiting to hear that the new CEO of Price Chopper/Market 32/whatever is the CEO of Wegman's...
... said abc on Jan 21, 2016 at 9:32 AM | link
@ABC - that's the next step. The PC/M32 remodel doesn't even look that dissimilar to Wegmans apart from the horizontal aisle layout (assuming the Wilton store, which was the first around here, is the model).
... said Alex on Jan 21, 2016 at 10:28 AM | link
If Grimmett joined the Golub Corp in 2012 after working for Safeway for 37 years, that puts him as being employed in the grocery industry for 41 years. Assuming he started working at Safeway when he was 16, that puts his age at 57. Looking at his picture, he is either a Highlander, vampire, or spends all his income on youth cream...
... said ace on Jan 21, 2016 at 10:33 AM | link
@ace: I think that photo's a few years old -- it looks like it's the same one the company released with an announcement a few years back.
That said, there could be some upside to hiring an immortal as CEO...
... said Greg on Jan 21, 2016 at 11:31 AM | link
This begs the question of how long Price Chopper/Mar32Ket can continue to survive in the Northeast. Their "transformation" is more than a decade too late. Wegmans was smart enough to develop their stores as they stand now back in the 90s– the equal quality of goods and service exist at all stores, small to large, old and new (which is a heck of a lot more than can be said of Price Chopper). Further, Wegmans remains family owned and run. They wipe the floor with Price Chopper where they compete in the Syracuse and Scranton regions (and probably soon in Massachusetts).
With Hannaford's parent company merging with the company that owns stores like Stop and Shop, competition will get tighter. Large megacorporations would love to get further inroads in the Northeast– I wouldn't be surprised if Safeway or Kroger look to buy Price Chopper, even before they can complete their transformation to Mar32Ket.
... said Uncle Leo on Jan 22, 2016 at 4:58 PM | link