Stater Bros. Markets is promoting its chief operating officer to top executive of the San Bernardino supermarket chain as Peter Van Helden steps back from the company’s day-to-day operations amid a challenging economic year.
The Wednesday, Sept. 10 announcement comes nearly a month after tough labor negotiations ended with its union, all while shoppers endured boisterous picketing by workers for most of the year — a first for the 89-year-old Stater Bros.
Van Helden, who was criticized by the union for his role in laying off grocery clerks during negotiations, takes on the role of executive chairman beginning Sept. 29.
Greg McNiff, the newly appointed chief executive officer and president, is a former executive with Albertsons — just like Van Helden, who also held several jobs with the Boise-based supermarket chain, including running its newly formed California food division in 2004.
McNiff spent 33 years of his grocery career in Southern California. He began in 1981 as a courtesy clerk at Albertsons, and while he was there, served in leadership roles. In 2016, he advanced to division president for Albertsons in Portland, Ore.
In 2019, McNiff joined Stater Bros. as its president, and in 2022 added the role of COO to his duties and led the company’s marketing, retail and distribution functions.
The change in CEOs comes at a tough economic time, not long after most supermarket chains in Southern California wrapped up labor talks while inflation continues to keep food prices high.
Industry observers noted Wednesday that the executive switch could pave the way for better relations between Stater Bros and its main union, and could lay the groundwork for a future sale of the company to a supermarket competitor.
A spokesperson with Stater Bros. did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment Tuesday on the succession plan.
‘Set up to be sold’
“It’s being set up to be sold,” said Jim Amen, president of Super A Foods, a family owned supermarket chain based in Commerce that caters to Latino and Asian shoppers in the Los Angeles area.
Amen said that handing the reins to McNiff was expected, as the “well-respected executive” was seen as the likely successor for Van Helden’s job. Amen previously served alongside McNiff on the board of the California Grocers Association, a Sacramento-based trade group.
Van Helden joined Stater Bros. in April 2013 and eventually took over the top executive post from Jack Brown, who served as president and CEO of Stater Bros. from 1981 until 2017. Brown proudly boasted in an Orange County Register interview in 2016 that the company had never laid off an employee.
This year’s contract negotiations with 12,000 workers with the United Food and Commercial Workers were among the toughest the union has ever negotiated with Stater Bros., said Andrea Zinder, UFCW Local 324 president in Buena Park.
“I don’t know how this will change things,” Zinder said of McNiff’s ascension. “One would hope this is welcome news.”
Earlier this year, after the contract with the UFCW expired on March 2, the relationship between the food workers and Stater Bros. deteriorated quickly when executives told 63 courtesy clerks they were laid off because of inflation and tariffs. In a video, Van Helden blamed inflation and tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump for cutting the clerks at several Southern California stores.
The pace of the talks between the UFCW and chains was briefly disrupted in late March when the federal mediator assigned to their negotiations was fired by the Trump administration. The mediator, Isael Hermosillo, was later hired back independently by the two sides to help in the discussions.
The union put pressure on the chain with a strike authorization vote on July 25. UFCW and Stater Bros. on Aug. 15 reached a three-year labor contract that includes higher wages and pension contributions, among other items.