HMSHost names Tom Fricke president, CEOHMSHost names Tom Fricke president, CEO

Alan J. Liddle

HMSHost Corp., the contract foodservice firm, has named Tom Fricke its new president and chief executive, the company said Thursday.

Fricke succeeds Elie W. Maalouf, who left HMSHost in October.

The Bethesda, Md.-based company said Fricke, who most recently served as chief executive of the 1,700-unit Cartridge World chain, will assume his new post on Jan. 16.

Before leading Cartridge World, Fricke worked for such companies as PepsiCo, Home Depot and Giant Eagle grocery stores. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and worked in Naval intelligence before leaving the service to complete an MBA program at Stanford University.

Autogrill SpA of Milan, Italy, which owns HMSHost, said on Aug. 30 that Maalouf, who had led HMSHost since 2005, would be stepping down to pursue other interests once a replacement had been found. An HMSHost representative said Maalouf left the company in October, but did not know his current status or plans.

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HMSHost, which offers contract foodservice and retail services at airports, turnpikes and shopping malls, booked U.S. foodservice revenues of $1.81 billion for fiscal 2010, the last full year for which Nation’s Restaurant News has figures. That was up 1.7 percent from the previous year.

Contact Alan J. Liddle at [email protected].
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