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Talk of the Bay

Revamped Sweetbay in expansion mode

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published August 28, 2006

Once the transformation of the last Kash n' Karry Food Stores to flashy Sweetbay Supermarkets is done next year, chief executive officer Shelley Broader plans to strike while the iron is hot. "We're going to be very aggressive about opening new stores to fill out our existing markets," she says.

Evidence is building it will be a bunch of stores. In an internal reorganization, Broader last week beefed up her chain's real estate department. Veteran merchandising vice president Craig Geer was named vice president of store engineering and construction services, and Russ Lake shifted from director of corporate development to director of real estate and growth strategy. Steve Smith, vice president of marketing, took over Geer's job. The chain told the state's shopping center developers at their annual confab that it hopes to be juggling up to 15 new store deals through the government permit mill by 2008. Few stores likely will be opened in any year, but the chain, which never opened more than six stores in a year, is talking about opening more than it has in decades.

[Last modified August 28, 2006, 07:16:29]