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Rite Aid names new CEO
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December 6, 1999: 12:05 p.m. ET
Robert Miller to be joined by three other former Fred Meyer Inc. executives
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Troubled drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. appointed a new team of top managers Monday, headed by an executive pulled from the country’s biggest grocery store company.
Robert G. Miller, vice chairman of Kroger Co., will become chairman and chief executive of the No. 3 U.S. drugstore chain. A former CEO of Portland, Ore.-based food and drug retailer Fred Meyer Inc. -- which Kroger Co. (KR) bought earlier this year -- Miller will be joined by three other Fred Meyer executives who will also become senior Rite Aid officials.
Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid (RAD) also said it has hired Deloitte & Touche LLP as its new auditors. The previous auditors, KPMG, resigned Nov. 11, saying they could no longer rely on what company management was telling them.
Rite Aid announced in October that it would have to restate its fiscal results for the past three years -- lowering earnings by about $500 million -- and that its then-CEO and chairman of the board, Martin Grass, had resigned.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the accounting matter.
In a statement Monday, Miller, 55, said the new management team would work quickly to address the issues affecting the company.
"This company faces significant challenges, but Rite Aid remains a leader in the retail drug industry,” he said.
Investors welcomed the news, which was announced before Monday’s market opening. Rite Aid stock gained about 30 percent in morning trading, rising 2-11/16 to 10-15/16 shortly before noon, after peaking earlier in the session at 11-3/4. The stock has plummeted this year in the wake of the company’s problems.
The other new managers include Mary Sammons, former president and CEO of Fred Meyer subsidiary, Fred Meyer Stores, who will become Rite Aid’s president and chief operating officer; David Jessick, vice president of finance at Fred Meyer Inc., who will become chief administrative officer, and John Standley, a former Fred Meyer Inc. senior vice president and most recently chief financial officer at food marketing firm Fleming Cos. Inc., who was named chief financial officer.
Rite Aid’s interim CEO, Timothy Noonan, will remain with the company and assist with the management changes. 
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Rite Aid
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