Grandson of Legendary Retailer Stew Leonard’s Named President of Farm Fresh Store
The grandson of legendary Northeast retailer Stew Leonard, Sr., T.J. Leonard, has been named president of Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market, a farm fresh food store in the Richmond area of Virginia. T.J. Leonard is the son of the store founder Tom Leonard.
The history of Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market can be traced back to the early 1920s, when Charles Leo Leonard started Clover Farms Dairy in Norwalk, Conn. In the late sixties, Stew Leonard, Charles’s son, built a retail dairy store where children could watch milk being bottled while parents did their shopping in a farmer’s market atmosphere. In December 1969, Stew Leonard’s opened its doors. Stew’s son, Tom Leonard, opened the second Stew Leonard’s in Danbury, Conn., in 1991. In 2004, Tom Leonard planted his roots in Richmond and opened Tom Leonard’s Farmer’s Market.
T.J. Leonard has spent a lifetime at his father’s side learning the business. Before he was appointed president, he served as the VP of merchandising at Tom Leonard’s. He also held positions with Safeway and Sprouts Farmer’s Market. While at Safeway in the Washington, D.C., metro area, T.J. Leonard was a store manager and a non-perishable field merchandiser, executing marketing efforts in all non-perishable departments. 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. He additionally spent summers during high school working at Stew Leonard’s Farm Fresh Food stores in Connecticut.
“T.J. might have been born into retailing, but he’s spent the past 20 years learning from some of the best grocers in the industry,” said Tom Leonard. “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.”
“I’m excited for my new role at Tom Leonard’s,” addedT.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.”
Family-owned and -operated, Stew Leonard's has eight stores in Norwalk, Danbury, and Newington, Conn.; in East Meadow, Farmingdale, and Yonkers, N.Y.; and in Clifton and Paramus, N.J. The company is based in Norwalk, Conn.
