Dive Brief:
- Aldi U.S. has promoted longtime executive Karla Waddleton to be its next chief operating officer, Waddleton announced on LinkedIn on Tuesday.
- Waddleton is stepping into the role that Atty McGrath will be leaving when she takes the helm as CEO of Aldi U.S. from Jason Hart, who is set to become group COO of Aldi South in Austria on Sept. 1.
- The executive shuffle places another company veteran in a C-suite seat for the discount grocer as it continues to swiftly open stores across the country.
Dive Insight:
With McGrath and Waddleton set to fill top roles, Aldi U.S.’s leadership team will have company veterans who have been with the discount grocer for over two decades each.
Waddleton noted in her LinkedIn post that she started with Aldi more than 20 years ago as a district manager in St. Louis. She rose through the ranks, becoming director of real estate and development in 2006, director of store operations in 2012 and vice president in 2014, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In 2016, Waddleton established the grocer’s Rosenberg Division, which serves the greater Houston area, she noted in her LinkedIn post.
“With her extensive experience and deep understanding of our business, I am confident that she will continue to drive our operational excellence and support our incredible growth trajectory,” Hart said in a LinkedIn post Tuesday about Waddleton’s appointment.
Similarly, McGrath has spent her entire 20-year career with Aldi, rising from district manager to director of operations to division vice president and then to COO. In May, Aldi announced the promotions for McGrath and Hart.
Aldi is currently experiencing a growth spurt stateside, with plans to open a total of 225 locations in 2025 in a mix of growth and established markets. In March 2024, the company announced plans to add 800 more stores to its U.S. store fleet by the end of 2028.
Aldi’s foot traffic growth outpaced the broader grocery segment in the first half of 2025, with visits increasing 7.1% year-over-year compared to the segment’s 1.5% increase, Placer.ai noted in a blog post on Monday. Aldi’s average visits per location were 1.6% higher in the first half of this year than they were for the same period in the last three years, indicating that the chain’s new stores are seeing sustained and growing shopper interest rather than cannibalizing foot traffic from existing locations, Placer noted.
