Announces Executive Appointment and Promotion
DAYVILLE, Conn., Oct. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
United Natural Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNFI), a leading national distributor of
natural foods and related products, today announced the appointment of
Rick Antonelli to the position of President of the Eastern Region and the
promotion of Dan Atwood to the newly created position of Senior Vice
President.
Mr. Antonelli served as Director of Sales for United Natural Foods, and a
predecessor company, from 1982 through July 2001 and most recently was
president of privately held Fairfield Farm Kitchens. He assumes the role of
President of the Eastern Region of United Natural Foods from Steven Townsend,
who will continue to serve as President of United Natural Foods. Mr. Antonelli
will have direct responsibility for leading the growth, profitability and
customer support of the Company's Eastern Region. This will provide
Mr. Townsend with additional time to focus on company-wide business strategies
including the integration of acquired companies, major customer and key
supplier initiatives and other national programs.
Mr. Atwood previously was National Vice President of Marketing for United
Natural Foods where he had direct responsibility for developing and
implementing innovative programs designed to provide opportunities for
suppliers to increase sales and improve margins. Mr. Atwood, as Senior Vice
President, will continue to focus on these customer and supplier initiatives.
He has been with the Company since 1982.
Both appointments were made during a recent meeting of the Board of
Directors.
Michael Funk, Chief Executive Officer of United Natural Foods, commented,
"We continue to build a team of inside and outside talent resources to enable
us to take advantage of growth opportunities in the rapidly growing natural
products market. Accordingly, with a strong operational background and
extensive knowledge of United Natural Foods and the natural products industry,
Rick Antonelli is uniquely qualified to assume the position of President of
the Eastern Region. As director of sales for the Company for 17 years, Rick
played an important role in our organization's growth and development. We
believe this is a natural transition that strengthens our Company as well as
our opportunities for growth."
Mr. Funk added, "We are also pleased to announce that Dan Atwood has been
promoted to Senior Vice President. Dan has served United Natural Foods for
over 20 years with distinction as he has progressed through a variety of
purchasing, sales and marketing positions with increasing responsibility. Most
recently, he played a key role in the successful implementation of our
national marketing program, which is designed to provide 'Win-Win' programs
and innovative offerings to Company suppliers and customers. In addition, Dan
has led the effort to develop and promote UNFI's National Brands as well as
leading the effort to receive Organic Certification for all of our
distribution facilities."
Background information
Mr. Antonelli, age 45, has committed a majority of his professional career
to United Natural Foods, serving as the Director of Sales since its inception
in 1996 through 2001. From 1985 through 1996, Mr. Antonelli served as Director
of Sales for Cornucopia Natural Foods, the Company's predecessor. From 1982
through 1985, Mr. Antonelli was director of operations for Harvest Provision,
a division of Bread and Circus that was acquired by Cornucopia Natural Foods
in 1985. Mr. Antonelli rejoins United Natural Foods from Fairfield Farm
Kitchens, a Massachusetts-based custom-food manufacturer, where he held the
position of president from 2001 to 2002. At Fairfield Farm Kitchens,
Mr. Antonelli's responsibilities included oversight of a 250,000 square foot
manufacturing facility, the acquisition and integration of an integrated food
company and the development and launch of three new organic product lines.
Mr. Atwood, age 44, has been with United Natural Foods for 20 years. He
has served as Secretary since January 1998 and was United Natural Foods
National Vice President of Marketing since April 2001. He was President of the
Company's Natural Retail Group and Vice President of United Natural Foods from
August 1995 to April 2001. Mr. Atwood was Vice President - Marketing of
Cornucopia, the Company's predecessor from January 1984 to August 1995 and
Director of Operations of Cornucopia from 1982 to 1983. From 1979 to 1982, Mr.
Atwood was a store manager at Bread & Circus Supermarkets, a super natural
chain. Mr. Atwood served on the Company's and its predecessor's Board of
Directors from August 1988 to December 1997.
About United Natural Foods
United Natural Foods, Inc. carries and distributes over 30,000 products to
more than 8,500 customers nationwide. The Company serves a wide variety of
retail formats including conventional supermarket chains, natural product
superstores and independent retail operators.
For more information on United Natural Foods, Inc., visit the Company's
web-site at www.unfi.com .
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding United Natural's business
which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve
risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties,
which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the
forward-looking statements, including but not limited to general business
conditions, the impact of competition and our dependence on principal
customers, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q
filed with the Commission on June 13, 2002, and its other filings under the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Any forward-looking statements
are made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and,
as such, speak only as of the date made. United Natural is not undertaking to
update any information in the foregoing reports until the effective date of
its future reports required by applicable laws.
SOURCE United Natural Foods, Inc.
/CONTACT: Todd Weintraub, Chief Financial Officer of United Natural
Foods, Inc., +1-860-779-2800, General Information, Joseph Calabrese,
+1-212-445-8434, or Analyst Information, Vanessa Schwartz, +1-212-445-8433,
both of FRB Weber Shandwick/