Former Walgreens senior operator to lead Fred’s store operations

Fred’s Super Dollar has named John Foley as the company's executive VP store operations, the company announced Wednesday morning. Mike Holligan, who formerly served in this capacity, will move to the open position of regional VP store operations.



“John's addition will extend the momentum we have developed in store operations and will further strengthen the talent of our management team, one of the key steps we have outlined that will help position Fred's to drive profitability and grow its convenience/pharmacy-centric model,” Fred’s CEO Jerry Shore said. “We are grateful for the sacrifices and contributions Mike Holligan has made during this past year in leading all store operations.”



More and more, Fred’s is fielding several heavy-hitting retail pharmacy operators that has been molding the Southeast regional into a successful retail pharmacy/value operator hybrid. Heading up Fred's as president and COO is CVS Health marketing and merchandising veteran Michael Bloom, who himself served as president and COO of dollar store operator Family Dollar. Filling the chief merchandising and marketing officer spot at Fred's is Bryan Pugh, who was a product pioneer for Walgreens for more than 10 years.



Then there’s Fred's homegrown pharmacy operator Rick Chambers, who joined Fred’s as a pharmacist after graduating from the Univeristy of Tennessee College of Pharmacy in 1992. In his 23 years at the company, Chambers has gravitated to executive VP pharmacy and has played a significant role in elevating the role of pharmacy at Fred’s.



And now retail pharmacy operations executive Foley. Foley brings to Fred's more than 30 years of experience in retail pharmacy chain experience. For the past nine years, he was corporate operations VP at Walgreens, responsible for the Eastern Division, which in 2014 accounted for approximately $20 billion in revenue from more than 2,500 retail pharmacies, healthcare clinics and specialty pharmacy units. Prior to this role with Walgreen's, Foley served as a district manager for six years and was a store manager for 11 years.