Rite Aid goal: be the solution.(News)

CAMP HILL, Pa. -- With responsibility for category management, merchandising, marketing and the supply chain, Ken Martindale is leading several of the most critical of Rite Aid Corp.'s initiatives to improve its operating performance.

His arrival at the drug chain last December fulfilled a long-delayed wish of chairman and chief executive officer Mary Sammons, who had wanted to recruit Martindale when she came to Rite Aid in 1999. But Martindale, who had worked with Sammons at Fred Meyer Inc. after that company acquired Smith's Food & Drug Stores in 1998, chose instead to establish his own food retailing company, Orchard Street Inc., in Salt Lake City.

Martindale did join his former colleague at Smith's and Fred Meyer, John Standley, when the latter left Rite Aid to …