Dive Brief:
- Wakefern Food Corp. has launched a sweeping restructuring of its sales and marketing team that involves replacing 79 existing positions with 73 newly created roles both within the company and at an outside media agency, Chief Communications Officer Karen Meleta told Grocery Dive.
- Employees whose jobs are being impacted have been invited to interview for the new roles at Wakefern, Meleta said, noting these 54 new positions are currently being offered exclusively to these team members.
- The restructuring reflects a decision by Wakefern to refocus its customer communications efforts around each of its eight banners.
Dive Insight:
Meleta said Wakefern decided to retool marketing and communications operations because the cooperative has expanded beyond its core ShopRite banner and felt it needed “a banner-driven approach.”
Moving forward, Wakefern will have four sales and marketing teams to support its banners, which include Price Rite Marketplace, Fairway Market and Gourmet Garage in addition to ShopRite. The co-op will also have brand managers for each banner, she said.
Wakefern is also creating a new group to handle sales and marketing for its private labels, which include Bowl & Basket, Wholesome Pantry and Paperbird, Meleta said.
Some of the new roles at Wakefern are at higher grade levels than ones they will replace, and some will involve managerial responsibilities, Meleta added.
The changes will take effect on May 16, and “everyone remains in their current positions at Wakefern” until that point, she said.
Wakefern has also decided to outsource advertising and circular production to Quad, a third-party media agency, allowing the company’s internal teams to focus on “strategic, customer-facing, and sales-building work,” Meleta said in a statement. Quad, which is becoming Wakefern’s agency of record, has created 19 jobs in connection with its arrangement to work with Wakefern.
“We believe most teammates will choose to accept the new roles within Wakefern or the third-party agency but expect some may see this transition as a chance to pursue a new path. Our goal is to retain as many team members as possible – either continuing at Wakefern in their new roles, without interruption or transitioning to Quad,” Meleta added.
Meleta noted that Wakefern previously worked with an outside company to develop its circulars but opted almost 20 years ago to bring that function in-house. The co-op’s decision to assign the work to Quad will not disrupt circular production, she said.
Meleta said she could not comment on how Quad is handling the hiring process for those positions, but said she is optimistic that the institutional knowledge current Wakefern staffers affected by the restructuring have would make them attractive candidates.
