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CAMP HILL, Pa. — Ray Payne, vice president of real estate for the West Coast at Rite Aid Corp., has been promoted to group vice president of real estate.
Ray Payne, vice president of real estate for the West Coast at Rite Aid Corp., has been promoted to group vice president of real estate.
Rite Aid said Monday that Payne succeeds Karen Smith, who retired last year after more than 35 years with the company.
In his new role, Payne will oversee the development and execution of Rite Aid’s real estate strategy nationwide — including establishing a pipeline of properties for new and relocated stores — as well as supervise the company’s tenant administration program and surplus properties. He reports to David Kelly, senior vice president of store development at Rite Aid.
Payne has extensive experience in the chain drug arena. In 1982, he worked as a staff attorney and then as a personnel manager for Sav-On Drug Stores. His real estate career started in 1986, when he worked for American Stores Properties as a real estate manager. In 1989, he joined PayLess Drug Stores as real estate director and was named group vice president of real estate in 1992.
Payne joined Rite Aid in 1996 as regional director of real estate and was promoted to vice president of real estate for the West Coast in 2001.
"Convenient store locations play an important role in Rite Aid’s dedication to providing an overall exceptional customer experience," Kelly said in a statement. "We look forward to benefitting from Ray’s knowledge and real estate expertise in his new role as he and his team work to forward Rite Aid’s real estate strategy."
At a recent investor conference, Rite Aid chief financial officer Darren Karst said the company expects to have opened 11 new stores, relocated 16 stores and remodeled 450 locations to its Wellness Store format — giving the drug chain about 1,600 Wellness Stores — by the end of the current 2015 fiscal year. As of the end of November, Rite Aid had 1,529 Wellness Stores and a total store base of 4,572.
Chairman and chief executive officer John Standley said at the conference that Rite Aid is "working very hard on building the real estate pipeline" and expects to sharpen its focus on relocations and net new stores over the next several years.
