Ladle has promoted Steve Miller to Executive Vice President, Grocery Pricing Operations, consolidating sales, onboarding, support, and software development for its independent-grocer business under a single leader as the company accelerates investment in its Storewise by Ladle technology platform.
Miller, a 12-year grocery wholesaler CIO, will report directly to CEO Todd Gebski and assume ownership of the company's full grocery organization. The move signals a structural bet on the independent and regional grocery segment at a time when operators in that channel face intensifying margin pressure from national chains and volatile vendor pricing.
The Platform Play
The appointment centers Ladle's grocery roadmap on two existing products — StoreKeeper, which connects retailers with wholesale and direct-store-delivery vendors while automating pricing workflows, and ReceiptKeeper, which extends that automation into receiving and vendor management. Ladle is also preparing to launch ReceiptKeeper AI, a tool designed to let store-level staff scan or photograph vendor invoices and automate much of the receiving process, reducing the manual labor that can erode thin grocery margins.
For independent grocers, where a single store manager may oversee receiving, pricing updates, and vendor reconciliation simultaneously, back-office automation carries direct unit-economics implications. Technology that closes the data loop between wholesalers and the store floor can protect price integrity and surface margin leakage that manual processes routinely miss.
Why Miller
Gebski called out Miller's fluency across all three tiers of the grocery supply stack — retail, wholesale, and vendor — as the key qualification. "Steve brings a rare combination of grocery industry experience, technology expertise and a deep understanding of how retailers, wholesalers and vendors work together," Gebski said. "Putting the full grocery organization under his leadership gives us greater focus and allows us to move faster on the solutions our customers need."
Miller framed the opportunity in operator terms: "Independent grocers operate in an incredibly demanding environment, and technology should make running their stores easier, not add more complexity. We have an opportunity to automate more of the work that consumes retailers' time, strengthen the connections between retailers, wholesalers and vendors, and give independent grocers technology built around the way they actually operate."
The structural consolidation under Miller mirrors a pattern seen across foodservice and retail technology vendors looking to sharpen go-to-market focus without adding headcount — concentrating product, sales, and customer success under a single P&L owner rather than managing them as siloed functions. For context on how technology investment is reshaping operator back-office operations more broadly, see our coverage of foodservice technology trends and independent operator strategy.
Ladle's broader suite also includes ComplianceMate and MeazureUp, serving restaurant, convenience, and grocery operators on food safety and operational auditing — giving the Storewise grocery push a cross-segment parent platform with established operator relationships.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
