T.J. Leonard has been named president of Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market, a farm-fresh food store in the Richmond, Va., area. The son of store founder Tom Leonard and a grandson of retailer Stew Leonard Sr. will oversee day-to-day operations of the store, as well as planning and finance, according to a news release.
“T.J. might have been born into retailing, but he’s spent the past twenty years learning from some of the best grocers in the industry,” said Tom Leonard, who opened Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market in 2004. “I am confident T.J. will be an excellent leader for our 65 team members at Tom Leonard’s, and I know our customers will continue to be delighted by our store’s fresh offerings and customer service.”
T.J. Leonard has spent a lifetime at his father’s side learning the business, the company said. Before Tom Leonard’s opened, he learned to merchandize a pumpkin patch and Christmas tree lot in the new store’s parking lot and spent time with the construction team learning about new store design and equipment, according to the release. Once the store opened, he spent his summers during college working in every department, from cashier and receiver to fish cutter and fresh mozzarella maker.
To this day, the skills he acquired in Tom Leonard’s meat department continue to serve him well: customers see T.J. Leonard in a white butcher coat every December, hand-trimming filet mignon for their holiday dinner tables, the release said.
“I’m excited for my new role at Tom Leonard’s,” said T.J. Leonard. “I can’t wait to see the customers who have been shopping with us since I was a teenager, and I’m looking forward to reconnecting with our longtime team members.”
Before he was appointed president, T.J. Leonard served as the vice president of merchandising for Tom Leonard’s and held positions with Safeway and Sprouts Farmer’s Market. While at Safeway in the Washington metro area, he was a store manager and a nonperishable field merchandiser, executing marketing efforts in all nonperishable departments, the company said.
In 2021, he accepted his most recent position as the senior director of produce and floral for Sprouts in Atlanta. In this role, he planned and directed all aspects of produce and floral departments at 91 Sprouts’ East Coast stores across 11 states, the release said. He additionally spent summers during high school working at Stew Leonard’s Farm Fresh Food stores in Connecticut, which is operated by his uncle, Stew Leonard Jr., and his aunts, Beth Leonard Hollis and Jill Leonard Tavello.
T.J. Leonard holds a degree in flight science from St. Louis University and has his commercial and instructor licenses for flying. In his spare time, he is also a dedicated gardener and farmer; while living in Atlanta, he grew 600 varieties of fruit and vegetables on a 4,000-square-foot backyard farm, the release said. This past year, he donated six pallets of fresh produce to local hunger relief organizations, the company said.
