Heritage Grocers Group has promoted Kim Cates to group VP of merchandising and Allison Garcia to group VP of marketing.
Cates and Garcia will report to Suzy Monford, chairman and CEO for Heritage Grocers Group.
“Both Kim and Allie bring a wealth of knowledge, innovative thinking and a deep passion for our customers and communities,” Monford said.
“Their leadership, vision and excellence in execution are transforming our Cardenas, Los Altos, Tony’s and El Rancho banners and enabling us to compete in powerful ways.”
Cates was previously VP of center store for Heritage Grocers Group. Her food industry career includes 23 years with San Antonio, Texas-based H-E-B, where she progressed through various store operations roles, among them director of food service and general manager of H-E-B Central Market.
She spent several years at Stamford, Connecticut-based Daymon, where she developed private brands. Before coming to Heritage Grocers Group in February, Cates was director of center store sales at Kansas City, Kansas-based Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG). She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Garcia joined Heritage Grocers in February as VP of marketing. Her food industry career includes 16 years with Kroger, where she progressed through a range of roles, including marketing leader at Ralphs Grocery Co., director of marketing for the Kroger Enterprise and marketing leader at Fry’s Food and Drug.
Garcia has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky. She also completed the USC Executive Leadership Program and serves as vice chair for Next Up in the Phoenix region.
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About Heritage Grocers Group
Headquartered in Ontario, California, Heritage Grocers Group is a specialty, ethnic food retailer that offers an assortment of traditional and specialty grocery items.
The company operates in California, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada and Texas, with 58 stores under the Cardenas Markets banner and 29 under El Rancho Supermercado. It also has 21 Tony’s Fresh Market stores and seven Los Altos Ranch Markets