Grocery giant Ahold is searching for a new CEO for its Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover Arena division as Marc Smith prepares to retire.
Smith’s retirement comes on the heels of Ahold’s $1.1 billion settlement of a U.S. shareholder lawsuit over accounting malpractice in its U.S. Foodservice unit (Xtra, Dec. 1, 2005). The suit did not involve Stop & Shop or Giant.
Ahold is looking in its own ranks and outside the company for candidates to replace Smith. The process is expected to take several months; Smith will remain until his successor is hired.
Smith will continue day-to-day management of Stop & Shop and Giant stores in the Northeast. He’ll have help from Ahold President-CEO Anders Moberg.
Smith has run Stop & Shop since 2000 and Giant since 2004, and is credited with building “a sound foundation for moving Giant forward,” Moberg said in a statement.
U.S. shareholders filed suit in 2003 following a Securities & Exchange investigation of four Ahold executives who inflated the U.S. Foodservice division’s trade-promotion allowances to overstate 2000-2002 net sales by $30 billion. As part of the settlement, Ahold agreed to split the U.S. Foodservice division into two units: The Broadline operating company serves independent restaurants, healthcare providers, hospitality customers, government and education institutions; the Multi-Unit division serves chain restaurants, mostly QSRs and casual-theme restaurants.
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