Dive Brief:

• Heritage Grocers Group announced Tuesday it has promoted Eric Stover to be president of the ethnic food retailer, which runs the El Rancho Supermercado and Cardenas Markets banners.
• Stover most recently served as Cardenas Markets’ CEO, a role he had been in since March after Doug Sanders’ promotion to chairman and CEO of Heritage. 
• Heritage also announced the promotion of Chief Administrative Officer Prabash Coswatte to be its next chief operating officer.

Dive Insight:

The executive shuffling comes on the heels of recent merger and acquisition activity for Heritage Grocers Group.

During summer 2022, private equity firm Apollo Funds announced plans to buy Cardenas Markets and combine it with Tony’s Fresh Market to create Heritage. A year later, Heritage announced the acquisition of El Rancho Supermercado, adding the chain’s 28 stores in Texas and Kansas to its grocery portfolio. 

The Tuesday announcement marks a quick promotion of Stover to the top role at Heritage. Stover joined Cardenas in March 2020 as the grocer’s chief merchandising officer. Prior to Heritage, Stover served in merchandising and operations leadership roles at Wild Oats, Henry’s Farmers Market and Sprouts Farmers Market. He also held senior roles with United Natural Foods, Inc. and KeHE Distributors.

As president of Heritage, Stover will oversee category management, supply chain, pricing, schematics, marketing, loyalty program efforts, e-commerce and B2B/wholesale business across the company’s banners. Heritage did not announce who will fill Stover’s role as CEO of Cardenas Markets. 

Meanwhile, Coswatte will oversee store operations, information technology, continuous improvement, data integrity, loss prevention, internal audits, construction and facilities maintenance as Heritage’s chief operating officer. Coswatte joined Cardenas Markets as its chief information officer in 2019 after serving as CIO for Vallarta Supermarkets. 

Coswatte and Sanders will both report to Sanders.

In a statement, Sanders said that the move to promote Stover and Coswatte “further aligns and unifies the organizational structure” of Heritage, noting that they both bring extensive experience that will help execute the company’s growth strategy.

The promotions of Stover and Coswatte are the latest executive changes at Heritage. In April, the company appointed Darren Karst as its CFO and named Matthew Holt as its executive vice president of finance.

Headquartered in Ontario, California, Heritage operates 113 grocery stores across California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Kansas and Illinois. The company currently runs 57 Cardenas Markets locations, 28 El Rancho Supermercado stores, 21 locations under the Tony’s Fresh Market banner and seven Los Altos Ranch Market stores.