Bi-Lo Holdings LLC, the Jacksonville-based parent company of the Bi-Lo, Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarket chains, said Tuesday that Randall Onstead is stepping down as president and CEO on March 1.
A successor “has been identified and will be named publicly at a later date,” Bi-Lo spokesman Brian Wright said in an email.
“We are pleased to have Randall stay through much of the first quarter of 2015 to help with the transition process,” he said, but the company gave no other details.
Wright said Bi-Lo employees were informed of Onstead’s departure last week.
Onstead was CEO of Greenville, S.C.-based Bi-Lo when it merged with Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. in 2012. After the merger, Bi-Lo moved the headquarters of the combined company to Winn-Dixie’s offices in Jacksonville.
Onstead and his wife bought a $2.145 million riverfront home in Jacksonville’s San Jose neighborhood last year, according to property records.
There is no obvious successor in Bi-Lo’s management ranks. According to a 2013 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the next three highest-ranking officers behind Onstead were three executive vice presidents, who are all in their 50s.
Onstead was 57 at the time of the November 2013 filing.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Carney is the longest tenured of the three executive vice presidents, having joined Winn-Dixie in 2005.
Chief Merchandising Officer Lawrence Stablein joined Bi-Lo in March 2012 and Chief Operating Officer D. Mark Prestidge joined the company in January 2013.
The SEC filing was made for a potential initial public offering, but the company withdrew its IPO plan in August 2014. No reason was given for calling off the IPO.
The company is owned by funds managed by Dallas-based Lone Star Funds.
Bi-Lo operates 804 supermarkets in eight Southeastern states under the Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo and Harveys banners. It acquired Harveys from the Delhaize Group last year.
As a privately-owned company, Bi-Lo does not report financial data but its last IPO filing showed it had $7.7 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2013.
It is likely the second-largest company headquartered in Jacksonville behind CSX Corp., which reported $9.5 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2014.
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