FREISCHLAG NAMED SR. VP BY SHOPKO
NEW YORK — Continuing to realign management, ShopKo Stores said Wednesday it has named Paul H. Freischlag Jr. as senior vice president and chief financial officer of the $2.3 billion regional discount chain.
Freischlag, 44, will join ShopKo on July 27 from Royal Ahold, based in Zaandam, The Netherlands.
Freischlag was responsible for the global finance and treasury activities at Royal Ahold, a $24 billion holding company, with 3,281 hypermarkets, supermarkets and specialty stores in 17 countries, in Europe, Asia and North America.
“Paul’s worldwide acquisition experience and superb knowledge of retail companies will be an enormous asset as we bring our growth strategy to fruition,” said Dale Kramer, chairman, president and chief executive officer of ShopKo, in a prepared statement.
Last June, Kramer disclosed ShopKo’s plans to add around 35 stores to its 147-unit chain by the end of 2000. In December, it acquired Penn-Daniels Inc., a $200 million discount chain with 19 stores in the Midwest.
According to ShopKo, Freischlag has expertise in the procurement, structure and execution of mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions.
Before he relocated to The Netherlands with Royal Ahold, Freischlag, a native of Chicago, was vice president and treasurer of Stop & Shop Cos. Stop & Shop, a Boston-based supermarket chain, was acquired by Ahold in 1996.
Freischlag succeeds Jeffrey A. Jones, who was promoted in December from senior vice president and chief financial officer of ShopKo to executive vice president and chief operating officer of Pro Vantage Inc., the managed health care unit launched by ShopKo in 1993.
ShopKo also promoted William J. Podany to president and chief operating officer of the ShopKo discount stores at that time, and in January it named Paul A. Burrows, a former Broadway Stores executive, as senior vice president and chief information officer.
In the first quarter ended May 2, ShopKo’s earnings more than doubled to $2.2 million, or 8 cents a share, from $1 million, or 3 cents, based on more shares outstanding in the year-ago period.
Sales at its discount stores, located primarily in the Midwest and Northwest, surged 13 percent to $504 million, from $446 million, as same-store sales advanced 5.3 percent.