Mike Gross has joined Weis Markets as vice president of center-store sales and merchandising.
Sunbury, Pa.-based Weis said Wednesday that Gross will oversee the daily category management, merchandising and pricing for the chain’s grocery, dairy, frozen, health and beauty aids, general merchandise and adult beverage departments. He reports to Bob Gleeson, senior vice president of merchandising and marketing.
Gross (pictured left) brings 25 years of food retailing experience to Weis, the regional grocer noted. Most recently, he served as director of center store for Cub Foods, a retail unit of distributor United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI). His grocery career also includes roles in store operations, merchandising and category management at Shoppers Food & Pharmacy and Supervalu.
With the appointment, Gross takes over the post vacated by Donna Banks-Ficcio, who served as VP of center-store sales and merchandising at Weis from July 2017 to March 2020 before joining UNFI as VP of merchandising for the central region in April 2020.
In May 2020, Weis promoted Brian Bosworth to senior director of center-store merchandising and sales to handle that department’s merchant functions. Gleeson also assumed center-store merchandising and sales as part of his responsibilities when he was elevated to his current position of senior VP of merchandising and marketing in March 2021, after joining the grocer in July 2019 as VP of fresh merchandising.
Overall, Weis Markets operates 197 supermarkets in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia and Virginia. The Mid-Atlantic grocery chain posted fiscal 2021 net sales of $4.22 billion, the highest in its history.
