Wakefern Food Corp.

Wakefern Food Corp., Keasbey, NJ, appointed Travis Riepenhoff as group vice president, fresh. Riepenhoff succeeds Mark Van Buskirk, who now leads Wakefern’s Center Store divisions as group vice president.

Riepenhoff will oversee Wakefern’s fresh food divisions, including foodservice, bakery, meat, seafood, produce and floral.

With over 23 years of experience in the supermarket industry, Riepenhoff brings expertise in retail operations and merchandising across all fresh departments. He most recently served as vice president of fresh merchandising at Giant Eagle, where he developed high impact merchandising programs, led assortment optimization and worked to elevate product quality across the chain. Prior to that, he was senior director of meat and seafood at Kroger.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Shawnee State University and completed Leadership Education and Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In his new role, Van Buskirk succeeds Paul Patten as Wakefern’s group vice president of center store. Patten is retiring after a 43-year career with the cooperative.