SpartanNash Fortifies Tech Innovation With Exec Promotion
Food solutions company SpartanNash has promoted Masiar Tayebi to EVP, chief strategy and information officer. Tayebi was hired in April 2021 as EVP, chief strategy officer.
Before coming to SpartanNash, Tayebi was global head of corporate strategy and business development at Whirlpool Corp. In that role, he was responsible for strategy and acquisitions, including Yummly, a technology food platform offering online grocery delivery. After acquiring Yummly in 2017, Masiar became its COO, executing Whirlpool’s innovation growth strategy and tripling users to 23 million.
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Previously, Tayebi was an executive director at UBS, where he focused on strategy, M&A and transformational change. During his time at UBS, he held various leadership roles, including Americas chief technology officer and global head of change management for the company’s asset management division. Before joining UBS, Tayebi worked with various Fortune 500 clients on strategic initiatives during his time in management consulting.
Tayebi holds an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from Bentley University. He was named one of the University of Chicago Booth’s Top 15 Alumni in Tech.
“SpartanNash is more focused than ever on being the most customer-focused, innovative food solutions company,” said SpartanNash CEO Tony Sarsam. “Our innovation through technology goes hand in hand with the overall strategy of the company, making Masiar a natural leader for the IT function moving forward. He brings more than two decades of experience connecting strategy, technology, innovation and execution to drive growth and transformational change.”
SpartanNash recently exceeded analyst expectations for its second quarter. Retail comparable sales rose 6.5% during the 12-week period ending July 16, while net sales jumped 7.9% to reach $2.3 billion. Gross profit for the quarter was 15.6% of net sales.
Breaking it down by business areas, net sales for SpartanNash’s retail stores edged up 8.5% to reach $672.4 million, compared with $620 million in the second quarter of 2021. In its food distribution group, net sales climbed 5.9% to top $1.12 billion, a surge attributed mainly to the impact of inflation on pricing. Meanwhile, net sales increased 12.4% in the military arm of the business, to $483.2 million.
SpartanNash’s core businesses include distributing grocery products to independent and chain retailers, its corporate-owned retail stores, and U.S. military commissaries and exchanges, as well as fresh produce distribution and fresh food processing. No. 41 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company serves customer locations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Europe, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Djibouti, Korea and Japan. SpartanNash also operates 147 supermarkets and employs 17,500 associates.
