ID NEWS: USF CEO Jim Miller resigns

James (Jim) Miller, ceo, U.S. Foodservice (USF), Columbia, MD, and an executive board member of USF parent, Royal Ahold, Zaandam, The Netherlands, has resigned. Robert G. Tobin, president and ceo of Ahold USA, a member of the Ahold Supervisory Board since 2001, and the former chairman and ceo of Stop & Shop, will serve as interim ceo. Miller has agreed to assist Tobin in the transition.

One of the more controversial figures in the industry, Miller may have been its greatest deal-maker. He put together the nation's second largest broadliner through a series of mega-mergers during the last decade. His resignation comes as a defeat to all the entrepreneurial energy he put into growth. It is the culmination of a steadily growing morass of problems, which started with Ahold's announcement in February that it had discovered accounting irregularities at the $17.5-billion distributorship. These irregularities resulted in an overstatement of promo income of fully $880 billion.

While Miller himself was cleared of any wrongdoing, the debacle and consequent problems for Ahold were too great for him to overcome.

See ID's upcoming Management Report, 5/15/03, for a look back at Miller's career and the meteoric rise of USF, its origins, and the other major players in its history.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Despite their complaints, customers keep flocking to Chipotle

The Bottom Line: The chain continued to be a juggernaut last quarter, with strong sales and traffic growth, despite frequent social media complaints about shrinkflation or other challenges.

Operations

Hitting resistance elsewhere, ghost kitchens and virtual concepts find a happy home in family dining

Reality Check: Old-guard chains are finding the alternative operations to be persistently effective side hustles.

Financing

The Tijuana Flats bankruptcy highlights the dangers of menu miscues

The Bottom Line: The fast-casual chain’s problems following new menu debuts in 2021 and 2022 show that adding new items isn’t always the right idea.

Trending

More from our partners