Dive Brief:

• Good Food Holdings, which oversees five West Coast grocery chains, announced on Thursday that Nancy Lebold is the new CEO of New Seasons Market and New Leaf Community Markets.
• Lebold previously served as the vice president of merchandising in California for Kroger’s Food 4 Less banner and worked at WinCo Foods for 27 years, where she held several roles leading retail operations, procurement and general merchandise.
• Lebold joined the two banners on Thursday, April 15, replacing Forrest Hoffmaster. 

Dive Insight:

Lebold is leading New Seasons and New Leaf at a time when Good Food Holdings is looking to expand its banners, place a stronger focus on localization and create a customer-first experience.

Good Food Holdings CEO Neil Stern has said that all five banners are slated to grow as the company strengthens its West Coast footprint. Last month, the holding company announced several upcoming stores, including new locations for The Metropolitan Market and Bristol Farms set to open before two for New Seasons. 

Lebold said in the press release that she will bring a “people-centric leadership approach” as CEO. She started in the grocery industry as a procurement specialist for WinCo Foods in 1992, and over the span of two decades she held a number of executive positions at the Boise, Idaho-based grocery chain, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She served as the vice president of general merchandise procurement for five years before overseeing procurement, where she helped to streamline supply chain efficiencies. In 2015, she became the senior vice president of retail operations and in that role led multi-billion-dollar sales in the retail sector. 

In 2019, Lebold switched companies and became the vice president of merchandising in Southern California for Kroger’s Food 4 Less banner. 

As part of the March announcement noting banner growth and increased localization, Good Food Holdings revealed that Hoffmaster would leave the CEO role for New Leaf and New Seasons.

The growth plans come just a little over a year after Good Food Holdings acquired Portland, Oregon-based New Seasons and its wholly-owned subsidiary New Leaf, which operates in central California.