Chestnut Market and Director of Foodservice Ben Lucky have parted ways about a week after the c-store chain announced his hiring, a spokesperson from the New York-based convenience retailer said in a statement to C-Store Dive.
Chestnut revealed in a press release on March 23 that Lucky, who has worked in retail foodservice for more than two decades, became the company’s first-ever director of foodservice. On March 30, a Chestnut spokesperson said that Lucky is no longer with the company “due to a change in circumstance.”
The spokesperson declined to comment further on Lucky’s departure. In a text message to C-Store Dive, Lucky said “neither party has liability for this situation” and that his exit is for personal reasons.
“Chestnut Market is a phenomenal organization,” Lucky wrote.
Prior to joining Chestnut, Lucky was 7-Eleven’s senior director of fresh food for a little over a year. Before that, he was strategic director of retail and foodservice for design agency King Retail Solutions, and also worked as senior category manager of foodservice and dispensed beverages for the Wills Group, which operates the Dash In convenience store chain. He held that role for four years before moving to Cal’s Convenience, where he was vice president of foodservice. He left Cal’s following the sale of Cal’s to 7-Eleven.
Chestnut’s spokesperson confirmed that Director of Merchandising Farris Jamal will take over in the interim as head of foodservice. The spokesperson said they expected the search process for a new director of foodservice to re-commence “in the near future.”
