C&S Wholesale Grocers Names Joe Cavaliere Chief Commercial Officer

C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. has appointed Joe Cavaliere its chief commercial officer, effective Sept. 4.

Cavaliere brings 30-plus years of extensive industry experience to the newly created role, having headed national sales organizations at Kraft Foods, Unilever, and, most recently, Newell Brands, where he was president and global chief customer officer.

“Joe is a results-driven, strategic leader focused on people leadership, customer development and identifying creative solutions for solving customer issues,” said C&S CEO Mike Duffy. “He has a passion for building high-performing teams and developing new capabilities, and will be instrumental in defining solutions to help our customers win.”

C&S’ creation of the role of chief commercial officer is in line with the company’s enhanced focus on customer collaboration to innovate for the evolving grocery retail landscape, according to the wholesaler.

“C&S has an impressive legacy of innovation and delivers distribution excellence for the lowest cost in the food business,” noted Cavaliere. “In the years ahead, we have a unique opportunity to build on this success to leverage industry-leading capabilities to become the undisputed partner of choice for growth.”

Cavaliere sits on the board of directors for Sprout Foods, and has served on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, Breakthrough Atlanta, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association and Enactus.

The largest wholesale grocery supply company in the United States, Keene, N.H.-based C&S supplies more than 14,000 independent supermarkets, chain stores, military bases and institutions with 140,000-plus products.