Retail Watchers

...and it isn't a surprise. Anthony Hucker, who was serving as interim CEO, has been appointed permanently to the role Ian McLeod left a few months ago.

Hucker Appointed President And CEO Of Southeastern Grocers

Looks like a person with some good experience with good, high volume operators.

Quite a contrast from the typical Winn Dixie.

I guess we will see what happens next.

storewanderer wrote:Looks like a person with some good experience with good, high volume operators.

Quite a contrast from the typical Winn Dixie.

I guess we will see what happens next.

I'm not nearly as optimistic, based on an article from another thread. Maybe I'm a bit inaccurate, but this was McLeod's protege, and we all know the reality of how THAT was going.

earlier, I wrote:Hucker is basically a discount McLeod with the same sort of disconnection McLeod had with what he was doing but without the vision or experience. The article mentions how Hucker wants to bring Winn-Dixie "into the future" but with Winn-Dixie really going nowhere as a company, I don't see that happening. McLeod's end goal of Coles was for it to build back volume and become a competitive grocer again, which it did. Meanwhile, Winn-Dixie continues to get crushed by Publix and can't even hold ground against Albertsons in places like Baton Rouge and McLeod can't even get the volume Winn-Dixie needs. (I don't know enough about southeastern markets to know if Kroger competes against BI-LO)

storewanderer wrote:Looks like a person with some good experience with good, high volume operators.

Quite a contrast from the typical Winn Dixie.

I guess we will see what happens next.

So was McLeod. He was starting to change things, but I'm not sure it was going as they wanted it to.

pseudo3d wrote:I'm not nearly as optimistic, based on an article from another thread. Maybe I'm a bit inaccurate, but this was McLeod's protege, and we all know the reality of how THAT was going.

earlier, I wrote:
Hucker is basically a discount McLeod with the same sort of disconnection McLeod had with what he was doing but without the vision or experience. The article mentions how Hucker wants to bring Winn-Dixie "into the future" but with Winn-Dixie really going nowhere as a company, I don't see that happening. McLeod's end goal of Coles was for it to build back volume and become a competitive grocer again, which it did. Meanwhile, Winn-Dixie continues to get crushed by Publix and can't even hold ground against Albertsons in places like Baton Rouge and McLeod can't even get the volume Winn-Dixie needs. (I don't know enough about southeastern markets to know if Kroger competes against BI-LO)

Yes, he was the 'protege'. But he had not always worked with or around McLeod. Keep in mind that this guy has worked for some pretty high profile operators, including Schnucks and several others. I think he will do well *if* the money holds out.

Yes, he wants to bring them into the future. Seeing as WD is a company stuck 2 decades in the past, it will be costly and difficult, but it can be done.

I think what SEG is doing in Florida may be the correct path, because it includes shedding the old WD name and ways. They may need to do the same with Bi-Lo to be truly profitable.

WD only competes with Albertsons in Lafayette, Baton Rouge and Hammond, and not Lafayette any more. Publix crushes all the competition wherever they are, but especially in Florida. You just don't beat Publix there, similarly to that you don't beat HEB in parts of Texas, Jewel in Chicago or Wegmans in New England. That's what the regionals like that do best. I've mentioned this in several other places.

Working for Ahold isn't exactly a great qualification--perhaps he knows how to degrade a once well-run chain. Unfortunately, he's being asked to turn around a long degraded chain, loaded up with debt. WD has been in trouble for over 20 years--the period for salvage was long ago.

Hucker will have to execute decisions to clean up the disaster in place before McLeod and what McLeod left behind.