Shaner Out at Save-A-Lot
Santiago Roces will be the new CEO and president of Save-A-Lot, the hard-discount subsidiary of Supervalu Inc.
Most recently the senior VP and general manager of Walmart’s small format division, Roces, 48, replaces Bill Shaner, who has led Save-A-Lot since 2006 and helped establish Save-A-Lot as one of the premier hard-discount grocery stores in America. Under Shaner’s tenure, Save-A-Lot outlined a significant growth strategy, which resulted in the company growing by 92 stores last year.
“We wish Bill well in all his future endeavors and appreciate his commitment to Supervalu for the past 27 years and more recently his leadership and guidance as we laid out an aggressive growth strategy for Save-A-Lot,” said Craig Herkert, Supervalu CEO.
Supervalu announced previously that it plans to double the number of Save-A-Lot stores, growing it to more than 2,400 locations by the end of 2015. With more than 20 years experience in the grocery and food industry, including experience in franchise development, Roces brings a track record for growing sales and driving new market development, Supervalu explained.
“Santiago is a nice fit for our company and for Save-A-Lot,” Herkert said. “We believe he is the right individual to lead this organization forward and to help ensure we realize the aggressive growth plans that have been established.”
Roces has held a variety of leadership positions at Walmart, including senior VP of new business development and customer experience, president and CEO of Walmart Korea, and chief merchandising officer of Walmart Argentina. In addition to Walmart, he has held leadership positions at PepsiCo and Carrefour. Roces also has demonstrated leadership in driving private brands penetration and customer acceptance, a critical part of the Save-A-Lot business model with nearly 80 percent of its products packaged under private label.
“I am very pleased that Roces has joined our team,” Herkert said. “He is a very talented leader with a wonderfully diverse business background. His leadership, energy, and enthusiasm will be critical as we continue our journey to open more than 1,000 Save-A-Lot stores in the next several years.”
Save-A-Lot operates more than 1,200 stores in 39 states from Maine to California. Supervalu Inc. operates 4,294 stores composed of 1,114 traditional retail stores, including 805 in-store pharmacies; 1,280 hard-discount stores, of which 899 are operated by licensee owners; and 1,900 independent stores serviced primarily by the company’s traditional food distribution business.