Albertsons Ups Denningham to Prez

Albertsons Cos. has promoted its EVP and COO, Wayne Denningham, to the role of president and COO of the company.

Denningham will continue to lead store operations, with added oversight of marketing and merchandising, supply chain, manufacturing and integration, all of which will continue under their current leadership. Bob Miller remains chairman and CEO, a role he has held since April 2015.

Originally beginning his career with Albertson's Inc. in 1977 as a clerk, Denningham worked his way up in the organization, serving in district manager roles in three different divisions before being named president of the Rocky Mountain division and later of the Florida division. Subsequently, he was promoted to regional president for five divisions of Albertsons, and then served as both EVP of marketing and merchandising and EVP of operations for the company before leaving in 2004.

Denningham joined Albertson's LLC in 2006 and served as president of the Rocky Mountain, Florida and Southern divisions over the next seven years. In March 2013, he was named president of the Southern California division following the acquisition of 877 stores from retailer and wholesaler Supervalu, and in January 2015, he assumed the role of South Region COO following the merger with Safeway. He was named EVP and COO of the company in April 2015.

"This is the strongest leadership team I've worked with in my 50-plus years in this industry," Miller said. "I asked Wayne to join Albertsons LLC in 2006 to lead our Rocky Mountain Division. Since that time, he's led three different divisions, helped to negotiate and manage some of our most significant acquisitions, and successfully turned around some of our toughest assets. He's a remarkable leader with tremendous grocery retail acumen, and I'm pleased that he's accepted this new role."

Albertsons Cos. operates stores across 35 states and Washington, D.C., under 19 well-known banners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen and Carrs.