EG America this week named Brian Potvin its new vice president of procurement, a spokesperson for the convenience retailer confirmed.
Potvin, who officially joined the company on Jan. 22, is responsible for “centralizing and streamlining the procurement process across all of EG America’s retail banners and corporate support functions in support of the company’s long-term growth strategy,” the spokesperson said.
As of last summer, that strategy included a heavy emphasis on growing the Cumberland Farms brand, and also bringing its coffee, private label products and SmartPay rewards platform to the rest of EG America’s 1,700-store U.S. network.
Potvin brings about two decades of retail leadership experience to EG America. From 1999 to 2019, he held several roles with big-box retailer BJ’s Wholesale Club, with the majority of that experience being as director of strategic sourcing and procurement starting in 2007, according to his LinkedIn bio. Before that, he was the company’s manager of financial inventory control, merchandise accounting manager, a stock ledger analyst and senior field auditor.
Potvin left the retail industry in 2019 when he joined medical equipment manufacturer Haemonetics, where he spent less than a year as its director of global sourcing. He then joined specialized healthcare firm Sevita as its vice president of procurement, a role which he held for the past four and half years until joining EG America.
Potvin’s hiring comes about two weeks after EG America laid off about 90 corporate employees across its store support arm.
Blackburn, U.K.-based EG Group currently has more than 5,500 c-stores across the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Europe and Australia. Based in Westborough, Massachusetts, EG America is EG Group’s largest operation globally, with 1,645 sites across 10 banners in 30 states, including Cumberland Farms, Fastrac, Kwik Shop and Tom Thumb.
