BYRON CENTER — Dennis Eidson will retire as CEO on May 23 after more than 14 years with Byron Center-based SpartanNash Co.
President and COO David Staples, a 13-year veteran of the grocery retailer and food distributor company, will take on the role of CEO. He was appointed to SpartanNash board of directors on March 2.
Eidson will continue to serve on the board as its chairman, a position he’s held since June 2016. He has been with the company since 2003 and held the titles of CEO, president, COO and executive vice president of marketing and merchandising.
Staples and Eidson worked together to orchestrate the transformational $1.3 billion merger of Spartan Stores with Nash Finch in 2013.
Board member Tim O’Donovan praised Eidson for his “unparalleled contributions” to the company’s “continued success and growth.”
“Under Dennis’ guidance, the company has achieved remarkable success in executing its business strategies and leveraging the food distribution, retail, and military segments to achieve sustainable growth,” O’Donovan said in a statement.
Staples, a certified public accountant and a graduate of Michigan State University, has been with the company for 17 years, including for 16 years as its CFO. He formerly held roles at Kmart Corp., where he helped the firm divest its roughly $2 billion big box home improvement division known as Builders Square.
“We have high standards of excellence and I look forward to further strengthening our market position by leveraging our organization's core competencies and competitive advantages to ensure that we collectively cultivate relationships that will enable us to extend our success well into the future,” Staples, a previous winner in the MiBiz CFO of the Year Awards, said in a statement.
