Farmstead Names Head of Operations
Online grocer Farmstead has hired Sara Custer as its head of operations. Custer brings more than a quarter-century of logistics experience to her latest role, with previous senior operations positions at various grocery delivery companies.
Before coming to Farmstead, Custer was VP of operations at San Francisco-based Imperfect Foods where she helped lead the opening of five new facilities nationwide, raising the company’s availability to more than 75% of the United States while maintaining metrics and costs. Under her guidance, Imperfect Foods increased its headcount from 45 to 1100-plus and expanded its SKU offering from 65 to more than 250.
Prior to that, she was SVP of operations at San Francisco-based GrubMarket, and also held senior roles at Munchery, LivBlends, Blue Apron and Whole Foods Market.
In her new position, Custer will oversee operations, expansion and customer satisfaction, as well as working closely with accounting, finance, and HR to manage Farmstead’s massive growth. The company said that its customer base has grown by double digits, month over month, throughout 2020. Recently, Farmstead offered its Grocery OS software to enable traditional grocers to take delivery in-house and better compete with Amazon and others, and opened the waitlist for its first expansion market, Charlotte, North Carolina.
“I joined Farmstead because it is such an important company in this uncertain time,” said Custer. “We provide a much-needed service that allows consumers to get all their groceries delivered right to their doorstep. The trajectory for online grocery is rising sharply, and Farmstead’s platform is both exciting and ever-evolving; it is a one-of-a-kind company. The core team is a group of incredibly bright folks who push the boundaries every day, and I am really excited to join them during such an important time in the company’s history.”
“Sara knows more about warehouse-led online grocery operations than anyone else we've ever met, over a storied career,” noted Pradeep Elankumaran, co-founder and CEO of Burlingame, California-based Farmstead. “As we scale up operations in many new markets, her people-focused, empathetic leadership will be key to helping our customers get a consistent, reliable experience that they absolutely love.”
