As it looks to foodservice to help bolster its struggling convenience store business in North America, 7-Eleven appears intent on learning a thing or two from the second-largest grocery chain in the continent.
The Irving, Texas-based convenience retailer named Brandon Brown as its new senior vice president of fresh foods earlier this month, Brown confirmed to C-Store Dive on Tuesday. He joins 7-Eleven from Albertsons, where he was the company’s senior vice president of own brands for the past two years, according to his LinkedIn bio.
In his new role, Brown is responsible for the strategic planning, sales and profitability of 7-Eleven's fresh foods business, including its bakeries and commissaries, according to his bio on the retailer’s website. His hiring coincides with 7-Eleven also naming industry veteran Ben Lucky as its new senior director of fresh food role earlier this month.
At Albertsons, Brown led the grocer’s $16 billion own brands business, which included innovation, merchandising, marketing, product development, sourcing, replenishment, regulatory affairs and sustainability for the company’s 11 private label products, according to his LinkedIn bio.
Prior to joining Albertsons, Brown spent nearly 12 years with management consultancy McKinsey & Company, where he was a partner in the company’s consumer goods division.
Brown replaces Dave Strachan, who recently resigned from 7-Eleven to attend to family matters, Strachan said in a statement to C-Store Dive. Strachan was the retailer’s SVP of fresh food for about a year and half as part of a nearly 16-year career with 7-Eleven.
Brown will notably spearhead 7-Eleven’s food and beverage modernization program, which debuted in late 2023 and includes bake-in-store and self-serve products, roller grill items and specialty beverages such as espresso, cappuccino, iced coffee and lattes. The program is currently available in 5,000 7-Eleven stores, and the company expects to add it into another 1,900 by the end of the year, with 650 more during Q1 2025.
7-Eleven is banking on this program, in addition to its private label line, to help improve the company’s financial standing, CEO Joseph DePinto said earlier this month on an earnings call.
7-Eleven revealed earlier this month that it plans to shutter nearly 450 underperforming convenience stores and sell $750 million worth of locations in North America as it continues to face financial and operational headwinds. The company in recent weeks slashed its fiscal 2024 operating income forecast by nearly 28%, from $2.9 billion to $2.1 billion.
