Big Y Names Colin D’Amour to Real Estate and Development Group

Big Y Foods Inc. has appointed Colin M. D’Amour as a senior manager of procurement within Big Y’s real estate and development team. Reporting to Mathieu D’Amour, VP real estate store development, D’Amour is responsible for managing all aspects of purchasing and equipment buying for the company’s 80-plus locations.

A grandson of Big Y co-founder Gerald E. D’Amour and son of the president and CEO, Charles L. D’Amour, he is one of six third-generation members of the D’Amour family who are actively involved in the company.

As part of Big Y’s real estate committee, D’Amour is involved in evaluating viable expansion opportunities across all operating formats, including the Big Y World Class Markets, Fresh Acres, Table & Vine, and Big Y Express convenience store divisions. He is also project manager for the expansion of Big Y’s distribution center, as well as overseeing various programs and initiatives with Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based Topco Associates, a company providing aggregation, innovation, and knowledge management solutions for its food industry member-owners.

D’Amour began his career as a service clerk at Big Y supermarkets in 1998, at the age of 14, rising through the ranks to hold such roles as produce clerk, warehouse selector, and construction/remodel store projects coordinator. He also completed Big Y’s Supermarket 101 training program.

In 2007, D’Amour accepted a commission with the U.S. Marine Corps as a second lieutenant, ultimately earning the rank of captain. While serving in Marines, he was both a purchasing officer and a construction manager in support of the Afghan National Security Forces throughout his area of operations. In 2014, he left active duty in the Marines and returned to Big Y, entering the store-director training program and becoming assistant store director in the Great Barrington, Mass., location a year later. By 2016, he had been a store director at stores in Pittsfield and Lee, Mass., before last year taking on his most recent position, that of corporate center store sales manager. 

One of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in New England, Springfield, Mass.-based Big Y operates 80 locations throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut, among them 70 supermarkets, employing more than 11,000 employees. The company is No. 36 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.