Fresh Market taps a lion as new CEO

Greensboro, N.C. -- The Fresh Market named a veteran food retailer who once led Food Lion as its new president and CEO. The hiring follows the abrupt termination of the chain's former CEO and comes as the once high-flying chain has seen its sales stagnate.



The 176-store specialty grocery retailer named Richard (“Rick”) Anicetti as the company’s president and CEO effective Sept. 1. Anicetti, who was also elected to the board, succeeds Sean C. Crane, who was named interim president and CEO in the wake of the termination of Craig Carlock in January 2015.



Anicetti joins The Fresh Market with more than 30 years of experience across key retail functions at Hannaford Brothers Company and Food Lion LLC.



In addition, he serves as a member of the board of directors at Number Holdings, parent company of 99 Cents Only Stores LLC, where he also served as interim CEO, and he is a director on the board of Smart & Final Stores.



In conjunction with his appointment to The Fresh Market, Anicetti will resign after a period of transition from his current board positions.



“After an extensive search, we are delighted that Rick Anicetti will join us as the CEO of The Fresh Market,” said founder and chairman Ray Berry. “Rick is a highly accomplished food retail executive serving in leadership roles at Hannaford and Delhaize. He and I have spent time together reviewing the competitive marketplace and I am impressed with his knowledge of store operations, as well as his demonstrated vision, innovation and ability to successfully run large grocery organizations. We remain grateful to Sean Crane for his efforts towards improving our operations in this time of transition.”



Anicetti served for eight years as president and CEO of Food Lion grocery stores, a subsidiary of Delhaize Group. During his tenure at Food Lion, Anicetti led a major business model transformation, changing Food Lion from a distribution company to a customer-centric organization and he was also the co-CEO of Delhaize America.



After leaving Delhaize in 2010, he joined Ares Capital as a strategic advisor and served on the board of two of their portfolio companies, Number Holdings, the parent company of 99 Cents Only Stores LLC and on the board of publicly-traded Smart & Final.