CEO/General Manager

Gem City Market – Dayton, Ohio
Retained Search Partner: The Carlisle Group

The Carlisle Group is pleased to be partnered on a retained search with Gem City Market in Dayton, Ohio, in the search for their next CEO/General Manager.

Gem City Market is a community-centered, full-service grocery cooperative created to bring quality, affordable food to a diverse, low- to moderate-income neighborhood in Dayton. More than simply a grocery store, Gem City Market is committed to being a pillar of the community it serves—helping strengthen the local culture, creating opportunity, and providing a welcoming place where neighbors can shop, connect, and thrive.

The co-op is seeking an entrepreneurial, community-minded grocery leader who can balance mission and margin—someone who understands that a successful cooperative must deliver both meaningful community impact and strong financial performance. The CEO/General Manager will have the opportunity to lead the Market into its next chapter while ensuring that customers receive quality products at affordable prices in a clean, welcoming, and inclusive environment.

Living in Dayton

Dayton offers an appealing combination of affordability, accessibility, community, and opportunity. Located in southwest Ohio, Dayton provides the amenities of a larger metropolitan area while retaining a strong sense of neighborhood and community.

The city has a rich history of innovation, entrepreneurship, and community involvement and is home to a diverse collection of neighborhoods, restaurants, arts and cultural attractions, parks, and outdoor recreation. Residents enjoy access to an extensive regional park system, the great Miami River, biking and hiking trails, and numerous opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.

Dayton's location is another advantage. Cincinnati and Columbus are both within approximately an hour's drive, while Cleveland and Indianapolis are accessible within a few hours. The region offers a relatively affordable cost of living compared with many larger U.S. metropolitan areas, making Dayton an attractive place to build both a career and a life.

For a leader who wants to make a tangible difference in a community while enjoying a high quality of life, Dayton presents a compelling opportunity.

Position Purpose

The CEO/General Manager is responsible for leading Gem City Market as a successful, financially sustainable cooperative while advancing the goals and purposes established by the Board of Directors.

The CEO/General Manager will ensure that the Market:

• Operates efficiently and ultimately profitably.
• Provides quality, affordable groceries that meet the needs of its customers.
• Maintains a clean, welcoming, and inclusive shopping environment.
• Builds a positive culture for employees and the broader community.
• Advances the cooperative's mission and role as a community institution.
• Remains responsive to the needs of the diverse, low- to moderate-income neighborhood it serves.

The CEO/General Manager will bring together the disciplines of grocery operations, financial management, merchandising, people leadership, marketing, and community engagement to ensure the continued success of Gem City Market.

Overview of Responsibilities

Operations

• Lead an efficient, customer-focused, and ultimately profitable cooperative grocery operation.
• Create a positive store atmosphere and build a motivated, accountable staff team.
• Maintain current knowledge of grocery retailing, industry trends, and best practices, particularly those applicable to cooperative markets and urban, low- to moderate-income communities.
• Develop and maintain productive relationships with market partners, wholesale distributors, local markets, and other industry resources.
• Establish and maintain an appropriate product mix that meets shopper needs while supporting financial objectives.
• Develop and execute a margin strategy that allows Gem City Market to remain price competitive while maintaining adequate cash flow.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, licenses, permits, health requirements, and employment standards.
• Continuously evaluate operational performance and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, customer service, and profitability.

Financial Management & Strategic Planning

• Develop and recommend long- and short-range plans designed to achieve the cooperative's purposes and strategic objectives.
• Direct the financial operations of the cooperative and maintain accountability for the organization's financial performance.
• Develop operating, capital, and cash budgets for Board approval and manage the business within approved financial parameters.
• Provide regular, meaningful financial and operational reporting to the Board of Directors.
• Monitor key grocery industry metrics and use financial and operational data to make informed decisions.
• Identify new business opportunities and make recommendations to the Board regarding potential growth, partnerships, and innovation.
• Participate in regional and national cooperative and grocery industry events to remain connected to emerging trends and best practices.

People & Culture

• Determine the appropriate staffing structure and maintain clear, effective job descriptions.
• Hire management personnel and oversee the hiring, training, development, and retention of Market staff.
• Create a positive, productive, inclusive, and accountable workplace culture.
• Manage and evaluate employees while providing timely coaching, feedback, recognition, and accountability.
• Establish appropriate compensation structures based upon the budget, local labor market, and competitive conditions.
• Organize staffing to promote a fair distribution of work while maintaining excellent customer service.
• Develop and maintain an effective employee benefits program.
• Build a culture where employees understand the Market's mission and their role in delivering it.

Marketing & Community Engagement

• Develop and execute an effective advertising and marketing strategy that maintains strong public awareness of Gem City Market and its products and services.
• Ensure marketing activities are executed within established budgetary guidelines.
• Communicate effectively with cooperative members, customers, employees, community partners, and other stakeholders.
• Prepare or oversee the preparation of the annual report and other communications to the cooperative's members and community.
• Ensure that store displays, signage, promotions, and merchandising effectively support sales and customer engagement.
• Strengthen Gem City Market's position as a trusted and visible community institution.
• Identify opportunities to deepen relationships with local organizations, businesses, producers, and community partners.

Reporting Relationships

The CEO/General Manager reports directly to the Board of Directors, which includes Market staff and members of the community.

The Board is responsible for establishing the organization's overall direction, goals, and expectations, while the CEO/General Manager is responsible for leading day-to-day operations and executing the strategy established by the Board.

The CEO/General Manager has the authority to hire, direct, structure, develop, and evaluate all other Market staff.

The successful candidate will understand the importance of building a strong, collaborative relationship with the Board based on trust, transparency, accountability, and open communication.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will bring a combination of grocery retail expertise, financial acumen, leadership ability, entrepreneurial thinking, and a genuine commitment to community.

Grocery Retail Leadership

• Minimum of five years of successful experience managing a retail grocery store.
• Strong understanding of grocery store operations and the various departments required to achieve sales, margin, labor, and profitability goals.
• Demonstrated understanding of key grocery industry metrics and how to use them to drive performance.
• Experience managing both retail and administrative functions.
• Knowledge of current grocery industry trends and competitive dynamics.
• Experience with merchandising and marketing in highly competitive grocery markets.

Financial Management

• Demonstrated bottom-line accountability for a grocery or retail operation.
• Strong understanding of financial variables and their relationship to overall business performance.
• Experience developing and managing operating, capital, and cash budgets.
• Ability to analyze financial and operational information and translate it into effective business decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to balance affordability and customer needs with margin, cash flow, and profitability requirements.

Leadership & People Management

• Proven ability to motivate, lead, and coordinate people to achieve organizational objectives.
• Experience hiring, training, evaluating, developing, compensating, and, when necessary, terminating employees.
• Ability to establish clear expectations and hold people accountable.
• Strong listening skills and the ability to both give and receive constructive feedback.
• Self-aware, self-motivated, and comfortable taking ownership of decisions and outcomes.
• Ability to handle multiple priorities and demands while maintaining focus on the organization's most important objectives.

Cooperative & Community Leadership

• Genuine understanding of and appreciation for the cooperative business model.
• Ability to articulate what makes a cooperative different and how cooperative principles influence decision-making.
• Experience working effectively with a Board of Directors.
• Ability to build trust with Board members, employees, customers, and community stakeholders.
• Service-oriented leadership style with a genuine interest in improving the community served by the organization.
• Experience working in a food desert, food-insecure, or low-income community is highly valued.

Strategic & Entrepreneurial Thinking

• Ability to make difficult decisions and take appropriate risks when necessary.
• Strong problem-solving skills, including the ability to identify root causes and develop practical solutions.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to recognize and pursue opportunities for innovation and growth.
• Ability to maintain momentum and lead change with a sense of urgency.
• Willingness to seek outside expertise and perspectives when appropriate.
• Ability to balance immediate operational demands with the long-term health and sustainability of the cooperative.

The Opportunity

This is a unique opportunity for a hands-on grocery leader and community-minded executive to lead an organization with a purpose that extends well beyond the four walls of a grocery store.

The next CEO/General Manager will have the opportunity to strengthen Gem City Market's financial and operational performance while helping fulfill its larger role as a source of affordable food, employment, connection, and opportunity within the Dayton community.

For the right leader, this is more than an opportunity to run a grocery store. It is an opportunity to help build a stronger community through grocery retail.

Interested candidates should contact Brett Myers, Managing Director of The Carlisle Group, for more information regarding this retained search at [email protected].