Dive Brief:
- Aldi U.S. announced Friday it has named Chief Operating Officer Atty McGrath as its next CEO.
- Jason Hart, who has helmed the discounter’s stateside division for 10 years, will become group COO at Aldi South in Austria to help oversee global operations, effective Sept. 1. Hart will also join Aldi South’s executive board
- The top leadership change places a longtime executive of the company in its driver’s seat and comes as Aldi continues to rapidly expand its U.S. store footprint.
Dive Insight:
Hart is passing the CEO torch to McGrath at a time of exponential growth for Aldi U.S., which plans to open several hundred new stores over the next few years.
McGrath has spent her entire 20-year career with Aldi, holding a variety of leadership positions including district manager, director of operations, division vice president and, most recently, COO, according to the press release.
“Together, we will focus on driving innovation, expanding our reach, and delivering exceptional value to our customers,” she wrote in a Friday LinkedIn post announcing her promotion.
Aldi said in a LinkedIn post that McGrath will continue building on this growth momentum across America and that keeping up with its ambitious store openings goal and expanding to new markets will remain a priority moving forward.
So far, Aldi has opened 55 of its 225 planned locations for 2025 and has 75 set to debut this summer. The discounter said it is opening stores in a mix of growth markets as well as established markets, per the press release.
During Hart’s tenure at Aldi, he nearly doubled the chain’s number of U.S. stores and oversaw a store remodeling program that revamped hundreds of stores with new lighting, more colorful signage, new products and more as the discounter looked to peel away shoppers from traditional grocery stores. Hart also oversaw the company’s blockbuster acquisition of Southeastern Grocers in 2023.
Hart will continue this work by collaborating with Aldi teams “around the globe to drive our growth and success,” he said in a statement.
Like McGrath, Hart has also spent the entirety of his career with Aldi, serving the company for nearly 32 years. He noted in a LinkedIn post that his new role as group COO of Aldi South in Salzburg, Austria, is for a minimum three-year term.
