Fareway Reveals Key Leadership Promotions, Hire
The growing Midwest grocer Fareway Stores Inc. has promoted several executive team members.
Garrett S. Piklapp has been promoted to president. He worked at Fareway Stores for 13 years, most recently as EVP/secretary/general counsel. Meanwhile, previous EVP of Merchandising Michael J. McCormick has been promoted to chief retail officer. He has been employed at the food retailer for 24 years.
In addition, Jacob W. Moran has been hired as CFO to succeed current CFO Craig A. Shepley, who is retiring with 36 years of service to Fareway.
Piklapp and McCormick will be assuming their new roles effective immediately. Moran will start his new position with the Iowa grocer on Oct. 31.
“Garrett and Mike have been important members of our leadership team for many years, and we are excited to have Jake join this team,” said Reynolds W. Cramer, Fareway CEO. “They each bring specialized skills to help lead, support and execute our strategy with our officer team, department leaders and retail employees. Since becoming CEO nearly eight years ago, I’ve been dedicated to the growth and experience of our teams at all levels. Today’s announcement gives me great satisfaction in seeing this plan achieve another milestone. There is much to be excited about at Fareway, and I’m grateful to have this team assist me in leading our Fareway Family into the future.”
Fareway joined the GrocerKey Retail Media Network in June. Embedded into GrocerKey’s white-label e-commerce platform, GK Retail Media drives incremental revenue for retailers while offering brand and advertising partners a combination of cross-channel media to engage target customers.
“We’re excited to partner with GrocerKey to power our retail media program for brand partners,” said Aaron Irlbeck, SVP digital commerce at Boone, Iowa-based Fareway. “It is designed to give brands a streamlined way to share shopper programs with Fareway customers both on and off our Shop.Fareway.com platform – a great step forward toward building a leading digital grocery experience.”
Earlier in the year, Fareway deployed online shopping and curbside pickup programs powered by Madison, Wis.-based GrocerKey.
“Our customers can continue to have their fresh meat cut and packaged just how they like, their produce picked with proper ripeness, and quality substitutions if they wish, but now they can get this Fareway experience a different way,” said Cramer.
Fareway also recently switched to new PackIt Fresh EcoFreeze Totes for its curbside pickup service to help improve food safety and quality while providing greater sustainability. Freezable gel is built into the sides of the reusable totes to keep refrigerated foods safe for up to 24 hours.
“With PackIt Fresh EcoFreeze Totes, we can scale to meet demand by simply adding more totes into our stores. And because the totes can be reused over and over for months, PackIt Fresh is helping us reduce our carbon footprint,” said Irlbeck.
Family-owned Fareway was founded more than 80 years ago. It operates almost 130 stores in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota, and employs more than 12,000 associates. The company is No. 81 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
