Sprouts Hires Phipps as Senior VP, CMO

Sprouts Farmers Market announced this week that Gilliam Phipps has joined the company as senior vice president, chief marketing officer.

Phipps reports directly to Sprouts CEO Jack Sinclair and will oversee Sprouts’ marketing, advertising, customer engagement and private label teams. “We’re extremely pleased to welcome Gil to the Sprouts team,” said Sinclair. “The experience Gil brings will be instrumental in shaping Sprouts’ long-term strategy to build brand awareness and loyalty with our core shopper, including strengthening and defining our private label business.”

Phipps brings more than twenty years of experience in marketing strategy, branding, and product/private label development to Sprouts. He most recently served as vice president of branding, marketing and “Our Brands” at The Kroger Co., where he joined as vice president of “Our Brands” in 2012. Prior to joining Kroger, Phipps spent more than 11 years at H-E-B where he held various positions, including most recently as a director of “Own Brand” where he oversaw branding, innovation, product development, packaging and design. Before that, he led new product development and category management for national CPG brand Hormel Foods. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in English and philosophy from The University of Texas at Austin.

“I am extremely humbled to join Sprouts, a brand that I’ve long admired for innovation and purpose,” said Phipps. “Providing communities access to healthy, affordable foods is more important today than ever before, and I look forward to helping the brand connect even further with customers nationwide in meaningful ways with the products they need and desire.”