USA | The Kroger Co. announced that Stuart Aitken had stepped down as senior vice president and chief merchandising and marketing officer to pursue other professional opportunities.
Aitken will remain in his role at Kroger until the end of the year. Mary Ellen Adcock, Kroger's senior vice president of operations, will succeed him as chief merchandising and marketing officer.
"Mary Ellen is a respected leader within Kroger and our industry," said Rodney McMullen, Kroger's chairman and CEO.
"Her deep strategic experience in her past 25 years with Kroger in roles of increasing responsibility will continue to drive value for customers and growth for our business and associates."
Senior vice presidents of retail operations Valarie Jabbar and Kenny Kimball, who oversee Kroger's operating divisions, and group vice president of retail operations Paula Kash, who leads enterprise retail operations, which includes asset protection, corporate food technology, and e-commerce operations, will continue in their current roles as leaders of the company's operations. They will now report to McMullen.
Adcock has served as Kroger's senior vice president of operations since 2019. In this role, she has led strategic operations for the company's more than 2,700 stores across 35 states, supported more than 416,000 associates, and served 11 million customers.
She has overseen customer and associate experience, asset protection, process change, and productivity improvement initiatives and has been responsible for maintaining the highest food safety and regulatory standards.
As senior vice president of operations, Adcock has delivered more than USD 1 billion in annual operations savings for six consecutive years. This strategic focus on efficiency improvements allowed Kroger to reinvest those savings to lower customer prices and increase associate wages consistently.
She achieved this efficiency goal while improving the customer and associate experience by developing Kroger's Full, Fresh and Friendly: Every Customer Every Time program.
Adcock also led in operationalising Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, Kroger's commitment to end hunger in the communities it serves and eliminate waste as a company. She led the organisation in achieving 100 percent store participation in the company's surplus food rescue program for the first time.
Adcock joined Kroger in 1999 in the company's manufacturing division and held various leadership positions. In 2009, she was promoted to vice president of deli/bakery manufacturing and, in 2012, vice president of natural foods.
In 2014, she led merchandising and operations for the Columbus division. Adcock was promoted to group vice president of retail operations in 2016 and named senior vice president of retail operations in 2019. In 2022, Adcock was a Top Women in Grocery Trailblazer.
"On behalf of the Kroger Board and management team, I want to thank Stuart for his work to evolve Kroger's brand while bringing exciting, innovative products to our shelves," said McMullen.
"He played an instrumental role in overseeing Dunnhumby's integration and establishing 84.51º. We wish Stuart and his family all the best as they embark on a new chapter."
