by Eric Pereira / content creator
With a new president and CEO at ROFDA and a drive to bring change, ROFDA board member Randy Arceneaux, who is also president and CEO of Affiliated Foods in Amarillo, Texas, is delighted for what’s ahead.
“We as a board and the ROFDA Advisory Council team will all be 100 percent committed to the revival of ROFDA moving forward,” Arceneaux said. “Having a president back at the helm will set us up for the stability I think our members and partners are looking for.”
[In January], ROFDA announced the addition of AWG veteran executive Jeff Pederson as its new president.
Arceneaux is looking forward to returning to in-person conferences, as well as having retailers represented from prospective warehouses. He recommends that retailers who attend the ROFDA show should take this chance to share information and programs. “For our retailers, this is an opportunity to be with other co-op retailers that all have an understanding of our mission as a team,” he said.
Looking back on 2021, Arceneaux said the most valuable thing he gained from ROFDA was the share groups.
“As our share groups grow and develop personal relationships between the groups – they are really bringing great ideas and ways for us to work together and actually get things done as a group and not just meet,” he said.
Share groups also will offer an opportunity to strategize on supply chain disruptions and labor force shortages.
“As our teams on share groups come together, working and sharing ways to work with the vendor community, we are finding solutions that will benefit all of us in the future,” he said.
E-commerce continues to be a talking point for the future of the grocery industry, and Arceneaux sees this as a focus trend for ROFDA.
“All of us are working on e-commerce platforms, and I think a major focus is the work our procurement team is working together to partner with our vendor partners to develop go-forward opportunities as we all continue to deal with supply chain issues and how we can all come together to find solutions,” he said.
Arceneaux served as chairman of ROFDA’s board of directors from 2017-19.
“At that time, we were looking at being something much different than where we are now going. My challenge was to unwind ROFDA as we knew it at that time, and now we have made a full circle to building back ROFDA, which would be more fun to do.”
Arceneaux expressed his confidence in Ray Sprinkle taking over as chairman.
“Ray and I go way back in our careers. Ray has always been a great leader in all roles he has been in,” he said. “Being chairman of ROFDA is no different for Ray. He is the right person at the right time for us to move forward with new direction.”
For more information, visit rofda.com.
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