HEASBEY, NJ - A new executive is stepping up to steer the Wakefern Food Corp. ship toward continued growth in the fresh food industry. It was recently announced that the company has named Mark Van Buskirk as its new Group Vice President of Fresh.

In this new role, Van Buskirk will oversee Wakefern’s fresh food divisions, including Appetizers/Food Service, Bakery, Meat, Seafood, Produce, and Floral, ensuring the cooperative’s high standards while helping grow fresh food categories for stores. A respected retail leader, Van Buskirk brings more than 35 years of expertise in marketing, sales, operations, and private brand development for supermarket and convenience chains, a press release noted.

Van Buskirk most recently served as Senior Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing for The Save Mart Companies. As a member of the executive leadership team, he was responsible for overseeing the Corporate Merchandising and Procurement teams, as well as leading efforts in strategic and financial planning, merchandising analytics, and shopper insights.

“We are excited to welcome Mark to our leadership team at Wakefern,” said Chief Sales Officer Darren Caudill. “High-quality fresh offerings have always been at the heart of the customer supermarket experience—and we know Mark’s expertise and leadership will help us continue to grow these categories and take fresh to the next level.”

Prior to his most recent role, Van Buskirk worked at Jacksons Food Stores. Serving as Vice President of Marketing and Merchandising, he led teams that successfully leveraged consumer data and insights to create strategic plans that boosted the company’s market share.

In an earlier position with Albertsons Companies, he presided as GVP of Merchandising for Grocery, Frozen, Dairy, and Liquor, and was responsible for corporate merchandising teams, strategic planning, procurement, and shopper analytics and insights.

Before that, Van Buskirk served as Executive Vice President of Merchandising, Marketing, and Corporate Retail and Private Brands at SuperValu. There, he developed and led operations and sales teams for Cub Foods, Hornbacher’s Shoppers, Shop n’ Save, and Farm Fresh and grew annual sales to over $4.7 billion.

We wish the best of luck to Mark Van Buskirk as he steps into this new role. For more leadership changes in the industry, keep reading ANUK.