Parker’s Kitchen has appointed Darrin Samaha as vice president of marketing. Prior to his new position, Samaha served for the past nine years as vice president of marketing for Yesway, Fort Worth, Texas, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“Darrin Samaha is a highly talented marketing leader with a proven track record of success and a deep understanding of convenience-store marketing,” said Parker’s Kitchen CEO Brandon Hofmann. “We’re excited to welcome him to our team and know that he will be instrumental in helping us expand the Parker’s Kitchen brand to new markets.”
Hofmann was recently named CEO of Parker’s Kitchen, succeeding Greg Parker, the company founder and former CEO. Parker will transition from CEO to executive chairman.
In his new role, Samaha will develop and execute the overall marketing strategy for Parker’s Kitchen, driving brand awareness, customer engagement, loyalty and growth through digital marketing, promotions, merchandising and customer experience optimization, the company said.
Samaha, who has more than 20 years of marketing, brand and advertising experience, founded Blue Coda, Inc., a boutique creative agency in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he focused on brand design and digital advertising. As the chief creative officer, he worked with noteworthy companies and institutions, including Home Depot, Virgin, Liberty Mutual, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He earned her master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in human factors psychology from Tufts University. He is a graduate of the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Marketing Leadership Program and is a NACS and Impact 21-Certified Convenience Category Manager.
Samaha is a member of NACS, NACS National Advisory Group, the Association of National Advertisers and AdAge. He currently serves on NACS Content Committee and CSP’s C-StoreTec Advisory Board, which provides strategic guidance, insight and recommendations to tackle the biggest technology needs within the c-store industry.
Parker Co.’s is No. 86 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Founded in 1976 as a one-store operation in Midway, Georgia, Parker’s Kitchen has more than 90 c-stores and is based in Savannah, Georgia. The company employs nearly 1,800 team members throughout Georgia and South Carolina and completes more than a million transactions weekly.
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