Steve Miller has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Grocery Pricing Operations at Ladle, consolidating the company's entire grocery organization — sales, customer onboarding, support, and software development — under one leader for the first time. The move signals a sharper product focus for Storewise by Ladle, the company's purpose-built pricing and vendor management platform for independent and regional grocery operators.
Miller brings roughly 12 years of experience as a grocery wholesaler CIO, a background that positions him squarely at the intersection of retail operations, wholesale logistics, and technology automation. That operational depth is increasingly rare among grocery tech executives and is precisely what Ladle CEO Todd Gebski cited as the reason for consolidating accountability under Miller's leadership.
The Platform Bet
The promotion is tied directly to a product roadmap that now includes two near-term priorities: continued investment in StoreKeeper and ReceiptKeeper, and the forthcoming release of ReceiptKeeper AI. StoreKeeper automates pricing processes between retailers and their wholesale and DSD vendors; ReceiptKeeper extends that into receiving and vendor management. The AI layer, which is in pre-release, would allow store staff to photograph or scan vendor invoices and automate much of the receiving workflow — reducing the manual reconciliation work that consumes significant labor hours in independent grocery back offices.
For operators evaluating grocery tech investments, that stack represents a credible attempt to close a gap that has long plagued smaller regional chains: the disconnection between what a vendor invoices, what a wholesaler transmits, and what a store actually receives and prices. Automating that loop has material margin implications, particularly in a pricing environment where shrinkage and invoice errors compound quickly across high-SKU departments.
What This Signals for Operators
Ladle's organizational move is less about a single hire and more about a vendor signaling where it is concentrating R&D and sales resources. Independent grocers evaluating pricing automation platforms — or wholesalers shopping for connectivity tools — should note that Storewise is being positioned as a long-term infrastructure play, not a point solution. Consolidating the grocery business unit under a single EVP typically precedes accelerated go-to-market activity, expanded channel partnerships, and deeper integration roadmaps.
The independent grocery segment has historically been underserved by enterprise technology vendors, largely because the economics of smaller store counts made customization expensive. Platforms like Storewise are betting that AI-assisted automation changes that calculus by reducing the implementation and support overhead that made serving independents unprofitable at scale. If ReceiptKeeper AI delivers on its stated workflow promise, it could meaningfully shift the ROI conversation for operators who have deferred pricing-tech investments.
Operators and wholesalers tracking the hospitality and foodservice technology vendor landscape should also watch how Ladle's consolidated grocery unit approaches wholesale connectivity — a feature that could expand its relevance beyond the retail store floor and into distributor and supplier sales enablement workflows. The intersection of pricing automation and AI procurement tools is an area F&B Department has tracked closely as adoption accelerates across both grocery and foodservice channels.
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.
