The Vitamin Shoppe has elevated Jack Gayton to Senior Vice President, Merchandising, effective immediately, placing the seven-year company veteran in charge of the specialty retailer's merchant and product development organization at its more than 640 stores nationwide.
Gayton steps into the role vacated by Muriel Gonzalez, president of The Vitamin Shoppe, who is retiring after a retail career spanning more than four decades. Gonzalez joined the Secaucus, N.J.-based chain in 2020 and is credited with sharpening its merchant-led strategy, accelerating proprietary brand development, and deepening brand-partner relationships across the vitamins, supplements, and sports-nutrition categories.
The Promotion Rationale
Gayton joined The Vitamin Shoppe in 2019 and has since built a track record of landing exclusive and first-to-market product partnerships. Brands brought into the assortment under his watch include Barebells, Clean Simple Eats, David Protein, GHOST, Gorilla Mind, MaryRuth's, RAW Nutrition, and Transparent Labs — names that collectively reflect the broader consumer shift toward high-protein formats, functional foods, and clinically positioned supplement stacks.
CEO Sharon Leite cited Gayton's "strong commercial instincts" and "deep understanding of our customer" in announcing the promotion, framing it as recognition of internal talent rather than an outside hire. "Jack's advancement reflects the meaningful impact he has had across our merchandising organization," Leite said. Gayton will report directly to Leite.
Structural Changes
Alongside Gayton's elevation, David DiTota has been promoted to Vice President, Divisional Merchandise Manager, reporting to Gayton. DiTota brings more than two decades of merchandising experience across national retail and technology companies and will oversee third-party assortments while targeting what the company describes as high-growth wellness categories.
The dual promotion signals that The Vitamin Shoppe is reinforcing its merchant-led model at a moment when the broader health and wellness supplement market is fragmenting rapidly. Sports nutrition — long a core category for specialty retailers — is converging with functional food and beverage formats, blurring the line between traditional supplement aisles and consumer packaged goods shelves. Retailers that can identify and onboard breakout brands ahead of mass-channel competitors retain meaningful pricing power and foot traffic.
What's Next
Gayton said his mandate is to "anticipate what customers will want next" and build differentiated assortments while strengthening The Vitamin Shoppe's private-label portfolio — which includes seven proprietary brands such as BodyTech, plnt, and True Athlete. Private-brand development has become a strategic lever for specialty wellness retailers seeking to protect margins as national brands increasingly pursue direct-to-consumer channels.
The structural shift comes as specialty nutrition retailers face intensifying competition from both e-commerce platforms and mass-market operators expanding their supplement footprints. Securing exclusive launch windows with high-velocity brands has emerged as one of the few reliable traffic drivers for brick-and-mortar supplement chains, making Gayton's existing brand relationships a tangible commercial asset.
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.
