Two produce executives at retail giant Food Lion and its parent company have been let go in a management purge.
Jim Corby, vice president of produce merchandising for Salisbury, N.C.-based Delhaize America, and Kyle Price, Salisbury-based Food Lion’s vice president of produce merchandising, are no longer with the company, said Teri Miller, produce category manager for Delhaize America.
Corby and Price were two of 15 Delhaize and Food Lion vice presidents let go in an effort to turn around Delhaize America’s fortunes, Miller said.
Delhaize America, a division of The Delhaize Group, Brussels, also owns retail chains Bottom Dollar Food, Harveys, Hannaford Supermarkets, Reid’s and Sweetbay.
“Delhaize needs to turn around its performance, and this is part of a new direction,” Miller said. “I don’t think it was about performance. We are heartbroken about Jim being gone.”
In addition to his Delhaize duties, Corby was active in industry affairs. He served as a vice chairman of the board of the Newark, Del.-based Produce Marketing Association in 2011-12, and in 2010 he was elected to the 35-member leadership council of the Produce Traceability Initiative.
The upper management changes at Delhaize and Food Lion come a month after Cathy Green Burns was let go as Food Lion’s president. She was succeeded by Beth Newlands Campbell.
Also in 2012, Roland Smith became the new chief executive officer of Delhaize America, which saw its stock price fall by more than 30% in 2012.
Earlier in January, Sweetbay announced plans to close 33 stores. And a year earlier, in January 2012, Delhaize America announced plans to close the 126 stores under its Bloom banner.
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