Wakefern Racks Up a Retail Sales Record

At the annual meeting of Wakefern Food Corp. in East Brunswick, N.J. last week, the grocery cooperative said it had reached a record sales level of $10.6 billion in retail sales for the fiscal year ending Sept. 27, 2008, representing a 7.5 percent increase from the year-ago period. In addition, Wakefern posted $8.4 billion in warehouse sales for the fiscal year.

President and COO Dean Janeway said at the meeting that the growth of Wakefern’s wholesale initiative had surpassed expectations, and that the company was on track to double its volume from the prior year. Janeway went on to attribute Wakefern’s stellar financial performance to its entrepreneurial spirit. “The reason for our lasting success is right in this very room,” he added. “Every one of us -- committed to all of us. No other company has that, and it can’t be replicated.”

Also during the meeting, Wakefern shareholders re-elected to its board of directors Joseph S. Colalillo as chairman of the board; James Sumas and Larri Wolfson as vice chairmen; Lawrence Inserra Jr. as treasurer; Richard Saker, Dominick J. Romano and Jeffrey Brown as assistant treasurers; Irv Glass as secretary; Ned Gladstein, Joel Perlmutter and Steven Ravitz as assistant secretaries; Thomas Infusino as chairman emeritus; and Rocco Cingari, Lawrence Collins, Jon Greenfield, Charles Infusino, Bernard Kenny, Leonard Sitar, Richard Tully, Kenneth Capano, and Robert Clare as members.

Newly elected to the board was Richard McMenamin, a Wakefern member since 1995 and owner of McMenamin Family ShopRites, which operates two ShopRite supermarkets in the Philadelphia area.

Janeway and EVP Joseph Sheridan were also re-elected as operating officers.

Keasbey, N.J.-based Wakefern comprises 45 members who individually own and operate supermarkets under the ShopRite banner. Today, Wakefern, the merchandising and distribution arm of the company, and the over 200 ShopRite stores in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland employ more than 50,000 associates.
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