Former Walmart exec to head up operations at Giant Food

Giant Food has appointed Irfan Badibanga as senior VP of operations, effective Nov. 1. 

Most recently Badibanga served as senior VP of operations at Family Dollar, overseeing 8,000 U.S. stores in 44 states. Prior to joining Family Dollar in 2018, he was VP, store operations at Walmart, responsible for overall operations of 105 Walmart Supercenters that produced $8 billion dollars in annual revenue. Badibanga joined Walmart in 2008.

Badibanga began his grocery retail career as a bagger and by the age of 24, he was appointed to district manager at Winn-Dixie. He moved through the ranks at a variety of supermarket chains, building his expertise in store management, merchandising, operations, omnichannel delivery, asset protection, HR and general management. 

In his new position, Badibanga will be responsible for leading all operational aspects of Giant Food, regional operations, store support, strategic store planning and execution and asset protection, as well as people, team, and culture development.

“Irfan has been a successful, entrepreneurial leader, driving enormous growth at some of the largest retail organizations in this country," said Ira Kress, president of Giant. "We are confident that his deep management and operations expertise at both the regional and national level will bring tremendous value to our organization at a time when we are implementing a transformational brand strategy and evolving our culture."

Giant Food is headquartered in Landover, Md., and operates 164 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.