Howard Glickberg Retires From Fairway Market

Howard Glickberg, former longtime CEO and more recently vice chairman of real estate development for New York-based Fairway Market, has retired from the company. Glickberg will remain on the grocer's board.

"Howie has been indefatigable and indispensable to Fairway's growth over the past four decades," noted Jack Murphy, Fairway's current CEO. "It was his vision to bring together the corner butcher, bakery, cheese monger, fish market and farmers' market all under one roof, and add in an unparalleled selection of traditional, specialty and organic groceries at the best prices. All this has brought Fairway iconic status and enabled the company to truly earn the moniker 'Like No Other Market.'"

Executive Chairman Charles Santoro stressed that despite his retirement, Glickberg "will continue to play an important role on our board."

Growing the Family Business

Glickberg's grandfather, Nathan, opened the original location, at 74th Street and Broadway. Glickberg officially began working there while still in college, becoming a full-time employee in 1974.

The following year, to build the company, Glickberg joined forces with David Sneddon and Harold Seybert, and they began adding specialty items, expanding the space, and spotlighting fresh fruit and vegetables. Over the next three decades, his team opened additional stores in Harlem; Plainview, Long Island; and Red Hook, Brooklyn, before Westport, Conn.-based private equity firm Sterling Investment Partners acquired a controlling interest in the company in 2007 and infused it with capital to enable greater expansion. 

"I've dedicated the past 40 years of my life to building the world's greatest food store," said Glickberg. "It's been my life's work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the past, when I would take a little vacation, I would somehow wind up visiting a supermarket. And if I saw an apple out of place, I would fix it. So I've never traveled anywhere without Fairway on my mind."

Fairway Market operates 15 stores and three Fairway Wine and Spirits locations across the Big Apple's metropolitan area.

 

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