FLETCHER, N.C. — Former Rexall Pharma Plus chief executive officer Frank Scorpiniti has taken the helm at the Earth Fare natural food retailer.

Scorpiniti, a chain drug industry veteran who resigned from Rexall this fall, has been CEO of Earth Fare since October.

Based here in Fletcher, outside Asheville in western North Carolina, Earth Fare operates natural grocery stores in nine states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee.

The chain’s website highlights its avoidance of products containing high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, artificial colors and sweeteners, as well as synthetic growth hormones in fresh meat and dairy products.

“We believe food should be as close to the ground as it gets, and we are proud to read the labels so you don’t have to,” the site says.

The grocer also plays up local products and food from small, family-owned or artisan-operated producers. In-store icons call out items that come from within 100 miles. “Each store has a different local selection — which is how it should be,” the website says. “When we say local, we mean it.”

Scorpiniti was named CEO of Rexall in February 2012. He joined the company as chief operating officer 10 months earlier. Prior to that he was senior vice president of pharmacy operations at Duane Reade.

Before joining Duane Reade in late 2008, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Longs Drug Stores, including as vice president of pharmacy operations and vice president of pharmacy marketing. Starting in 1999, he was the chain’s pharmacy category manager and pharmacy category ­director.

At Rexall, Scorpiniti was the driving force in an effort to overhaul stores’ looks and services. He and his management team sought to reshape Rexall amid an expanding role for Canadian pharmacists; emerging competition, perhaps most notably from Target Stores; and shifting consumer expectations for pharmacies.

The changes “served as a platform for us to create a new brand strategy and reinvent Rexall,” Scorpiniti said last year. “We’ve taken a fresh look at everything in the store. Even the logo over the doorway is a signal — to our customers, our pharmacists and teams in the stores and home