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Supervalu Appoints New CEO For Save-A-Lot, Casteel Will Continue As President

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Supervalu Inc. has appointed Eric Claus as CEO of its Save-A-Lot segment, joining Ritchie Casteel, president, of the hard-discount banner.

Claus, 59, joins the company after spending the past two-plus years as the chairman, president and CEO of Red Apple Stores Inc., a chain of value retail stores in Canada. Claus is expected to start in his role with Save-A-Lot on or before Jan. 4, 2016.

Casteel’s role as president becomes effective with the start of Claus’ employment with the company. Casteel, who previously served as president and CEO of Save-A-Lot, will report to Claus and will continue to oversee day-to-day store operations while working closely with Claus on Save-A-Lot’s market development, store growth plans and preparation for the possible spin-off of Save-A-Lot.

Claus has spent more than 30 years in the retail industry with career stops in both the U.S. and Canada, where he has gained deep experience in both hard discount and grocery retail. He has served as CEO for Co-Op Atlantic, president and CEO at the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., first in the Canadian division and then overseeing the U.S. operations from 2005-09, and as an advisor to private equity firms on the retail and consumable goods industry. Since July 2013, he has served as chairman, president and CEO of Red Apple Stores Inc., where he restructured and transformed the now 155-store value-oriented clothing, general merchandise and food chain.

“I’m very pleased that Eric is joining our Supervalu team to serve as CEO of Save-A-Lot,” said Supervalu President and CEO Sam Duncan. “He has a great background in food retailing, and is a smart and charismatic leader. His strengths in and experience with the hard discount format as well as his history leading retail companies will be important as we look to finish our fiscal year strong and as we continue to position Save-A-Lot for the future.”

Jerry Storch, the company’s non-executive chairman of the board, said, “Eric brings tremendous experience to Save-A-Lot. The Supervalu board of directors is looking forward to Eric adding his strategic and long-term planning capabilities to the company and working together on our continued exploration of a potential separation of Save-A-Lot.”

Duncan added, “I’m also very grateful and appreciative for all the work and positive results that Ritchie has delivered in his leadership role at Save-A-Lot. When I came to Supervalu, Ritchie was one of my first appointments and he has done a phenomenal job these past two and one-half years. He is a tremendous leader and operator and it reflects in the performance we’ve experienced in our corporate stores and in the confidence he’s helped restore with our licensees. I look forward to Ritchie working closely with Eric to drive sales and growth at Save-A-Lot.”

Save-A-Lot is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and has approximately 9,300 employees nationwide supporting its 1,342 stores, of which 901 are operated by licensee owners (store counts as of Sept. 12, 2015). The business also operates 17 distribution centers across the country to support its existing stores and future store growth.

Supervalu announced in July 2015 that it was exploring a separation of its Save-A-Lot business, and that as part of that process it had begun preparations to allow for a possible spin-off of Save-A-Lot into a stand-alone public company. Supervalu says it is continuing preparations to separate Save-A-Lot, although at this time there can be no assurances that a separation or spin-off of Save-A-Lot will occur, or that any other changes in the company’s overall operations will happen.

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