Maria Rizzo has been elevated to vice president of advertising and marketing at Weis Markets, succeeding Ron Bonacci, who is retiring.
Rizzo (pictured left) previously held the post of director of marketing. Plans call for Bonacci, who has served as advertising and marketing VP for over five years, to retire at the end of the year, Sunbury, Pa.-based Weis Markets said yesterday.
As VP of advertising and marketing, Rizzo will oversee management of Weis Markets’ advertising, marketing and public/community relations activities. The Mid-Atlantic grocer said her key responsibilities include customer relationship management, marketing and advertising, spanning print, digital and electronic.
Rizzo came to Weis Markets in January 2009 as a category manager and then in February 2013 became senior manager of private brands and specialty foods (including natural and organic foods, beer and wine). She was promoted to director of marketing in April 2015. Prior to joining the supermarket chain, Rizzo served as an analyst at private-brand marketing firm Daymon Worldwide.
With more than 30 years of experience in the retail grocery arena, Bonnaci (pictured left) joined Weis Markets as VP of advertising and marketing in July 2017, coming over from United Supermarkets, where he was senior director of marketing.
Before that, Bonacci spent more than 10 years at Food City/K-VA-T Foods, most recently as VP of marketing. That followed almost two years as marketing VP at loyalty platform provider S&H Solutions and about 12.5 years at The Kroger Co. in various roles, including store operations, category management, merchandising and loyalty marketing.
Overall, Weis Markets operates 197 supermarkets in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia and Virginia.