CINCINNATI, OH - The Kroger Co. today announced that Stuart Aitken is stepping down as Senior Vice President, Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer, to pursue other professional opportunities. Aitken will remain in his role at Kroger through December 31, 2024. Mary Ellen Adcock, Senior Vice President of Operations, will succeed him as Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer.
Adcock served as Kroger's SVP of Operations since 2019, according to a press release. In this role, she leads strategic operations for the company's more than 2,700 stores across 35 states, supporting more than 416,000 associates and serving 11 million customers every day. Adcock oversees customer experience, associate experience, asset protection, process change, and productivity improvement initiatives and is responsible for maintaining the highest food safety and regulatory standards.
As SVP of Operations, Adcock has delivered more than $1 billion in annual operations savings for six consecutive years. This strategic focus on efficiency improvements provided Kroger the ability to reinvest those savings to consistently lower prices for customers and increase wages for associates. Adcock achieved this efficiency goal while also improving the customer and associate experience by developing Kroger's Full, Fresh & Friendly: Every Customer Every Time program.
"Mary Ellen is a respected leader both within Kroger and our industry," said Rodney McMullen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "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."
Adcock also played a lead role in operationalizing Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, Kroger's commitment to end hunger in the communities it serves, and eliminate waste as a company. She led the organization 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, where she held a variety of leadership positions. In 2009, she was promoted to Vice President of Deli/Bakery Manufacturing, and in 2012, Adcock became VP of Natural Foods. In 2014, she led merchandising and operations for the Columbus division. Adcock was promoted to Group VP of Retail Operations in 2016 and named SVP of Retail Operations in 2019. In 2022, Adcock was a Top Women in Grocery Trailblazer.
For more from the press release, click here. And stay tuned to ANUK for more updates.
