Born and raised in Los Angeles, Miguel Torres joined Advantage Solutions in 2005 as a part-time merchandiser for SAS Retail Services while still in college — and never looked back. His career journey from part-timer to senior vice president of operations for the Ahold Delhaize USA team illustrates the depth of opportunity and career mobility available to Advantage teammates.
Recently, Torres shared some of his story. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you begin your career at Advantage?
I started out as a part-time merchandiser at SAS Retail Services around 20 years ago, working with the Kroger team in the L.A. area. It’s very typical of a lot of our teammates’ stories. I was looking for something different. I was full time in college needing some flexibility and a couple friends of mine already worked for SAS and they referred me.
I worked with SAS throughout college. Once I graduated, I was offered a role to create the planograms for the Kroger team. And then I became a coordinator for SAS, coordinating our in-store execution team.
So I started as a team member and moved up the ranks to actually coordinate the team that I started on. And then around 2012, SAS expanded to the East Coast with Weis Markets in Pennsylvania, and I was given the opportunity to lead that team.
“The best days for our operations team are when we can celebrate a supervisor promotion from team lead. It can be life-changing for some people. I know it was for me, and that is why we do this: to change and impact people’s lives.”
-Miguel Torres
And where are you today, and what are you doing?
Today I lead the Ahold Delhaize USA team in Salisbury, N.C., tasked with all aspects of the business — providing guidance, vision and our best-in-class service to ADUSA. I oversee all the ADUSA business, which includes Food Lion here in Salisbury, as well as Giant Food and Giant Company in Pennsylvania; Hannaford in New England; and Stop & Shop in the Northeast.
The most important role I play on the team is always understanding our customer needs and hearing our team members to ensure that we have strong and supportive field processes in place.
What has been the most satisfying aspect of your current role?
Oh for sure, it’s seeing our people grow professionally and personally, right? The best days for our operations team are when we can celebrate a supervisor promotion from team lead. That to me is still very, very special, especially when it’s a team member or team leader that’s developed in their role enough to where they get that opportunity for management.
It can be life-changing for some people. I know it was for me, so that feeling never gets old and that still is why we do this: to change and impact people’s lives.
What are some of the goals you have this year for your team and the business?
My team, the past two years, we’ve done a lot of really great work to establish our image recognition platform. This year I feel there is an opportunity for us to really make an impact and support our customers to drive sales and gain a deeper understanding of their shelf conditions. So it’s going to be a big year for us in that respect.
Tell us a little bit about your life outside of work.
Well, I have five kids, so that keeps me pretty busy. They’re aged from toddler to 20 years old. My oldest son just started a job as a merchandiser for Coca-Cola, which was a nice surprise as I didn’t expect him to get into the same industry as his dad. And we just moved to North Carolina in August. We’re all settling in nicely and appreciating the warm welcome we’ve received.
What is it about the Advantage culture that you appreciate most?
The opportunities to grow. A lot of companies talk about it, but we live it. When I talk about my story here at Advantage and SAS, I love to say how “not special” my story is, if that makes any sense. Mine is not a one-in-a-million story and I’m proud to say that many if not all my counterparts at the VP level have had a similar journey. We reward those that invest into the business and invest into their careers.
We are a people business. Our business is our people.
