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Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: SEVER, MICHAEL
Sever, a longtime Hershey employee, was named plant manager of the candymaker’s Stuarts Draft manufacturing facility in 2022. He had previously been site operations leader at the facility, which produces nut-based candies like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Almond Joy. The plant, which opened in 1982, is the second largest of Hershey’s seven manufacturing sites. Sever managed [[...]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: RAMPOLDT, JOEL
Lidl, a German discount retail grocery chain, entered the U.S. market in 2017. But it struggled to compete with its chief rival, Aldi, and Lidl has changed its U.S. CEO three times since 2018. In 2023, Rampoldt took the reins as the first American to lead Lidl’s U.S. division and its expansion. As of July, […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: QREITEM, FOUAD A.
In the late 1990s, Qreitem founded Capital Restaurant Group, the company behind Paisano’s Pizza, based in Chantilly. He opened his first Paisano’s location in the Shops at Fair Lakes 25 years ago and the brand became a franchise model in 2009. The company now has more than 40 locations in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: POHANKA, GEOFFREY
Pohanka’s family has been selling cars since Frank Pohanka opened a Washington, D.C., dealership in 1919. Today, headed by Frank’s grandson Geoffrey, the company has more than 20 locations in Virginia, Maryland and Texas, and is one of the largest Virginia-based auto dealerships. It had revenue of roughly $2 billion as of 2024 and more […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: PARKER, DREW
Carter Machinery has deep roots in Virginia, tracing back to 1928, when Robert Hill Carter founded Virginia Tractor in Richmond. The company was the state’s first Caterpillar dealership, and it is still going today as an independent dealer with more than 30 locations. It has more than 2,300 employees in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: MURRELL, JERRY
As a young student in Michigan, Murrell’s academic struggles prompted a warning from a nun at his Catholic school: He would end up flipping burgers. It took a few years, during which he earned an economics degree from the University of Michigan, worked in life insurance, got married twice and had five sons. But eventually […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: MURPHY, KEVIN
Murphy got his start in the plumbing industry working summers at his father’s business, Midwest Pipe and Supply, which was purchased by Ferguson in 1999. A plumbing and heating products distributor with about 35,000 employees, Ferguson reported $29.6 billion in net sales in 2024. The company made its Fortune 500 debut this year at No. […]
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: WOODFIN, JACK
Woodfin’s parents, John and Anne, started Woodfin Heating in 1977 to sell heating oil, growing it into one of the largest privately held HVAC-related businesses in Virginia. A Virginia Military Institute and University of Virginia Darden School of Business alum, Jack Woodfin began working with his parents in 1995 as a retail manager. He took […]
Mars to pump $2B into U.S. manufacturing
Mars announced on Tuesday that it plans to invest $2 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations throughout the country by the end of 2026.
High times in Virginia: legal THC seltzers emerge statewide
Mountain High Seltzer announced earlier this month it is the first legal THC seltzer to be distributed statewide by major companies.
Nightingale ice cream expansion to add 166 jobs
Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches is investing $5.8 million to move to a new facility in Richmond and expects to create 166 jobs.
Ben & Jerry’s alleges parent company Unilever removed its CEO over social activism
Ben & Jerry’s says its CEO was unlawfully removed by its parent company, Unilever, in retaliation for the ice cream maker’s social and political activism. In a federal court filing late Tuesday, Ben & Jerry’s said Unilever informed its board on March 3 that it was removing and replacing Ben & Jerry’s CEO David Stever. Ben […]
