Anthony Hucker has had the interim removed from his titles of president and chief executive officer of Southeastern Grocers.
The parent company of Winn-Dixie and other grocery chains announced Thursday that the position belongs to Hucker, effective immediately. He had become the interim head of the company on July 1 with the departure of Ian McLeod.
Hucker has been with Southeastern Grocers since February 2016, but among his previous positions are president and COO of Schnucks, a grocery chain in the Midwest; president of Giant Food; head of Walmart’s strategy and business development division; and 10 years as part of the original start–up team with Aldi UK.
Last September, he filed a lawsuit against Schnucks claiming that he was terminated without cause in 2015 after he’d been offered the CEO position at Sav-A-Lot. The suit alleges that Hucker agreed to stay with Schnucks if the company waived his non-compete agreement.
But the company didn’t waive the agreement and fired Hucker, according the suit, costing him the Sav-A-Lot position. Three months later, he joined Southeastern Grocers as chief operating officer.
Southeastern Grocers, based in Jacksonville, has more than 700 stores — including Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo, Harveys and Fresco y Más — and 50,000 employees in seven Southeastern states. It doesn’t release exact store counts, other than to say it has more than 450 Winn-Dixie stores, 150 Bi-Lo stores, 77 Harveys Supermarkets, 18 Fresco y Mas stores, along with liquor stores.
During McLeod’s tenure of a little more than two years leading the company, Southeastern Grocers made a number of changes, including two major price cut promotions, joining a new loyalty rewards program, reconfiguring its stores labels and converting some of its stores. Some Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo stores have become the more value-oriented Harveys and some Winn-Dixies have been turned into Fresco y Mas, geared to Hispanic shoppers.
Southeastern Grocers LLC (formerly Bi-Lo Holdings) is a supermarket portfolio headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. The portfolio was created by Lone Star Funds in September 2013 as the new parent company for BI-LO, Harveys, and Winn-Dixie.
