Greg McNiff has rebuilt Stater Bros.'s senior team in his first nine months running the IE's largest private grocer
Citrus Belt Review: McNiff stepped up from president and chief operating officer to CEO and president on September 29, 2025, with longtime chief Pete Van Helden moving to executive chairman and the company's charitable arm. The same week, Stater Bros. elevated Rebecca Calvin to executive vice president and chief marketing officer, adding supply chain to her remit, and promoted Bertha Luna to executive vice president of store operations.
This month it brought in an outside hire: Bruce Robinson, a 40-year H-E-B veteran who spent the past year at Lowes Foods, as vice president of sales and merchandising for fresh — reporting to Calvin and tasked with the meat, seafood, produce, deli and bakery departments that anchor the chain's identity. Trade press counts Robinson as at least the third top-level change under McNiff.
The reshuffle follows a bruising year: the chain's first layoffs in its roughly 90-year history in February 2025, 63 courtesy-clerk jobs Van Helden tied to inflation and tariffs, and a contract fight with six UFCW locals representing more than 12,000 workers that came within a strike authorization of a walkout before ratifying a three-year deal in August.
For an operator reading the region, the bench rebuild is the substantive tell. A new fresh-merchandising hire from H-E-B — a chain known for exactly that — points to where McNiff sees margin and differentiation in a market where Sprouts, Aldi, and the Kroger and Albertsons banners all press on price and assortment.
One open question sits over all of it: around the leadership change, several trade and regional outlets reported industry speculation that the privately held chain is being positioned for a sale, which the company has declined to address. Nothing confirms it, and a management buildout cuts both ways — it can ready a company to compete or to be sold. Either way, the direction of an anchor employer in the region is now visibly in new hands.