Tonya Herring is returning to Giant Food as senior VP-merchandising and chief merchant. She held a similar post for the Landover, MD-based Ahold Delhaize USA brand from 2018 until 2022 when she moved over to sister brand Peapod Digital Labs as senior VP-omnichannel development.
Recently, the international retailer combined most of its USA administrative divisions (not its retail store brands) into one structure under the ADUSA umbrella.
In a related move, Giant veteran Rick Manzi, who was heading the overall company’s merchandising team on an interim basis, has returned to his previous post as VP-fresh merchandising.
In her return to Giant, Herring will oversee merchandising strategy and execution for the 165-store regional chain, which is the dominant retailer in the Baltimore-Washington market.
Herring began her grocery industry career with Safeway in 1991, staying for 24 years. In 2015, she joined Ahold as senior VP-non-perishables for Giant/Carlisle (now The Giant Company) and shifted to Landover in 2018 where she helped build a new organization from the ground up (when the Landover, MD-based regional chain switched to a decentralized platform in 2018 after the Ahold-Delhaize merger).
“We are very excited to have Tonya rejoin the Giant Food team as chief merchant,” said Giant Food president Ira Kress. “She is an accomplished, well-respected leader with deep merchandising expertise. I would also like to thank Rick for his interim leadership of the merchandising organization. Rick and Tonya will serve as great partners in leading us to future success.”
