Next month, Marty Gardner, senior vice president of merchandising, distribution, manufacturing, food safety, and pharmacy at Wegmans, will retire. Gardner joined the company as a night manager in 1982 and worked his way up to his current position over his 40-year career. Over the years he worked as vice president of meat and seafood merchandising, and senior vice president of merchandising, among others.
“Marty has made a significant impact through his passion for excellence across every area of our company,” said Colleen Wegman, president, and CEO of Wegmans Food Markets, in a statement. “He cares deeply about helping all of us be our best and inspires a strong sense of responsibility, ensuring we’ve thought everything through and are doing the right thing.”
Gardner’s beliefs in improving employee development opportunities and customer experience motivated the changes he put into place. He created merchant training programs to give employees more opportunities to learn and excel in their roles, many of which transformed into leadership positions. On the customer end, he modified the category merchant role to better accommodate customer needs and developed the “Win Out Way In” program, which was implemented by president Nicole Wegman, to allow customers to give feedback on Wegmans products before they are rolled out to stores.
“Marty will be greatly missed, and his legacy of high standards and caring will be a part of us forever,” said Colleen Wegman. “On behalf of all of us, we wish Marty the very best in his retirement.”
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