Hy-Vee Inc. has tapped a marketing director and triathlon organizer to become president of its 228-store chain. Randy Edeker, 47, a 28-year Hy-Vee employee who most recently served as executive vice president, assumed one of the three titles previously held by company Chairman and CEO Ric Jurgens immediately after a vote at Hy-Vee’s annual board meeting this week. Jurgens, through a spokeswoman, stressed Friday that he has no plans to retire. But Edeker becomes only the fourth Hy-Vee employee to hold the title of president since the company was founded in 1930. The three others, including Jurgens, 60, all eventually were selected to lead the entire company.
Hy-Vee spokeswoman Ruth Comer said the promotion makes Edeker head of all of Hy-Vee’s retail operations by adding oversight of the company’s drugstores and Midwest Heritage Bank to his previous supermarket responsibilities. Edeker will also be in charge of store design, marketing, advertising and communications. Jurgens, who in recent years has taken on increased public and industry roles, such as chairmanship of the national Food Marketing Institute, now has more time to focus on those activities and on “future thinking” about Hy-Vee, Comer said.
“It’s not an imminent transition, but it’s more of a desire to broaden Randy’s responsibilities,” Comer said. Jurgens is “still where the buck stops,” but “he’s going to operate on a higher plane.” Edeker, who started as a part-time employee at the Chariton Hy-Vee, later managed a store in Columbus, Neb., before moving to the company’s West Des Moines corporate office in 1995. He was named senior vice president in 2006. Edeker, a University of Chicago graduate with a wife and two grown daughters, lives in Urbandale. He could not be reached for comment Friday.
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