Tom Smith – who went from bag boy in a 12-store grocery operation to top man in a booming supermarket chain with 1,223 stores and weathered a devastating ‘‘PrimeTime Live’’ program in 1992 – is cleaning out his desk today.

As the workday ended Wednesday at Food Lion’s headquarters, word suddenly came – and spread quickly.

Smith, longtime chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer, had retired – effective immediately.

And board members had quickly approved his recommendation to name Bill McCanless to fill two of the slots Smith vacated. He is the new president and executive officer.

But McCanless, senior vice president of administration, chief administrative officer and secretary, who has been with the company 10 years, will not be chairman of the board.

That position went to Pierre-Olivier Beckers, chief executive officer of Delhaize ‘‘Le Lion’’ Group, the Brussels-based supermarket chain which is Food Lion’s largest shareholder.

The company’s first quarter financial report also released Wednesday shows Food Lion paid Smith $2.4 million in post-retirement benefits. With the settlement, Food Lion’s earnings fell from $61 million to $58.6 million for the quarter. Earnings per share dropped from 13 cents to 12 cents.

Smith himself told the company’s top management team he was retiring, and they told employees.

‘‘They viewed it very positively,’’ says Laura Kendall, the chief financial officer, who served as spokesman.

‘‘Bill McCanless is also a Salisbury native and has been groomed to be Tom’s successor. We’ve had a succession plan for a number of years, and he has been groomed to take over Tom’s role. He’s well known to all of us and has very strong leadership capabilities. We’re all very pleased with the transition.’’

The appointment of Beckers as board chairman, she added, indicates the board expects Delhaize to take a ‘‘more strategic position with Food Lion. Pierre and Bill have a close working relationship. Delhaize wants to see that stock price go up also.’’

Food Lion stock had boomed during Smith’s first six years in charge, going to a high of 18 1/8, but plunged to around 6 after ABC News’ ‘‘PrimeTime Live’’ charged unsanitary practices at some Food Lion stores. The stock has never rebounded to its previous highs.

Kendall said McCanless and Pierre Beckers will work together.

‘‘Pierre Beckers has been on our board for a long time,’’ she said. ‘‘He’s not new to Food Lion.

‘‘Delhaize views Food Lion as its growth opportunity in the United States, and with Pierre in the chairman’s slot they will be able to work with Bill in focussing on those types of strategies such as acquisitions of stores and driving sales momentum.’’

Neither employees nor stockholders anticipated Yesterday’s announcement – and it raised questions about what part the company’s less than stellar stock performance in recent years had played.

Second-shift workers taking a break outside the Food Lion headquarters said the announcement caught them totally by surprise.

‘‘The first thing I wondered was who is going to replace him,’’ said one worker, who didn’t want to be named. ‘‘I am not concerned about the health of the company. I haven’t heard anyone voice concern about the health of the company.’’

But the workers said they were speculating on what the announcement would do to the Food Lion stock price. Food Lion workers have a stock ownership plan included as one of their employee benefits.

Word about the resignation started at the highest levels and worked its way down through the ranks, the employees said. No formal company-wide announcement was made.

McCanless was a familiar name to the employees taking their break, although one said that he wouldn’t recognize him on sight.

‘‘We all knew who he was,’’ one worker said. ‘‘I couldn’t tell you anything about his background.’’

There were no rumors floating around the company that Smith was on the way out, the workers said.

Kendall said Beckers had gone back to Brussels and was unavailable for comment.

Action had to be rapid because the annual meeting is in May, and the proxy statement is due out next week.

‘‘We wanted the changes reflected in the proxy which is the mailing that goes into each shareholder’s home.’’

And Kendall denied that stock prices played any part in the action.

‘‘The value of the company on Wall Street when Tom became CEO in 1986 was $778 million. Now the company is worth $4.2 billion on Wall Street, so Tom has certainly done a remarkable job of moving the value of the company along over the years.

‘‘The share price has been low because grocery stocks in total have been down on Wall Street and it’s unrelated to this event. Tom has had it under consideration for some time.’’

And, she said, ‘‘that ‘PrimeTime Live’ incident is over eight years old, and it’s time to let it rest. Tom led the company through the recovery of that incident.’’

The news stunned Paul Fisher, chief executive officer of F&M Bank.

‘‘Whew!’’ he said. ‘‘I’m taken so off guard I’m going around in circles. Food Lion, Cheerwine and Stanback – they’re all synonymous with a fine local community, predictable in their product, but more important, predictable in what they mean and do for the community, and have been doing for umpteen years.

‘‘I know Bill McCanless will do a fine job, but I have only known Ralph Ketner and Tom Smith, and this will be a new management team. I wish them all the best in the world.

‘‘At the same time, I thank Tom and those before him for doing a tremendous job. Even though the stock price has not done so well in the last several years, overall, long term, the people with that stock have still done extremely well and should be forever indebted to everybody at Food Lion.’’

‘‘I think Tom did all the right things. He increased revenues, profits and he built one of the most efficient grocery store operations in the country. For whatever reason, his efforts and accomplishments were never recognized by Wall Street. He never really got the pat on the back from the financial markets that I personally think he and the company deserved.

‘‘I’m sure he became very frustrated and evidently he did what he thought was the most honorable thing under the circumstances. And that was to dismount and allow a new management team to take over.

‘‘I’m from the same school, and I would have done the same thing. I respect him for his decision. I wish Tom well. He’s a young man yet. He can do exciting things, and he just may want to start off on another trail – and if he does I’m behind him 100 percent. I don’t know what it is but I think he’s got an exciting future ahead of him. I feel good about it.’’

Archie Rufty, one of Food Lion’s first and still among its largest stockholders, is now living in Las Vegas, Nev.

His phone began ringing as soon as word got out.

First his son, Bruce, called from Salisbury. Then he got a call from Stiles Markey, a former Salisbury resident and large Food Lion stockholder who is also living in Las Vegas.

‘‘He was shocked to hear it,’’ Rufty said. ‘‘And I don’t know if it’s good news or bad. I don’t really see how it could be good news.’’

Personally, he was lucky to do so well with Food Lion, he said. He knew Ralph Ketner, one of the founders of the chain, ‘‘was smart, and I decided I’d ride with him. Things would be different if Ralph was there. What worries me is Delhaize. I don’t think they’re very smart.’’

And he doesn’t blame Tom Smith for retiring.

‘‘No use worrying himself to death having to run Food Lion when the stock’s not doing well.’’

Fred Stanback, another early stockholder, was also surprised.

‘‘I just had no idea that anything like that was going to happen,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m in the dark.’’

But Ralph Ketner says he isn’t ‘‘all that surprised. Food Lion stock has done so poorly for the past seven years I feel that Delhaize felt something should be done.

‘‘I hope that this change will be beneficial but have my doubts. Delhaize, in my opinion, has called all the shots these past seven years and will probably plan to continue to do so, especially since board members changed the bylaws to make sure they control the selection of board membership.’’

Wilson Smith, also a co-founder of the company along with Ralph Ketner and his brother, the late Brown Ketner, was not surprised.

‘‘I heard a rumor about two weeks ago that this was going to happen,’’ he said, ‘‘and I was hoping it would not happen. But with the pressure that’s on him, he probably needs some time all to himself.

‘‘I think as hard as he has worked, he probably needs some time off. I think the company will probably get some new people and will continue to grow. I’m sorry to hear it, but I think he’s been there a long time.’’

Tom Eller, another of the original group who started Food Town, which became Food Lion, heard rumors a couple of weeks ago, too. But he was surprised nonetheless.

‘‘I don’t blame him, if that’s what he wants to do,’’ he said.

‘‘I left when I was 54. I think a man ought to do what he wants to do when he gets able to do it. I think there’s a lot of pressure on Tom. I don’t blame him one bit.’’

The Food Lion board announced Smith’s resignation in a written statement with high praise.

He has made ‘‘countless contributions to Food Lion,’’ it said.

‘‘At the time he was appointed CEO, the company had 317 stores with sales of $1.9 billion and profits of $47.6 million. During his tenure, sales have quadrupled to $10.2 billion, the number of stores has grown to 1,223, and profits have strongly increased to $272.6 million.’’

One of the nation’s largest supermarket chains, it serves more than 10 million customers a week at stores in 11 Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

‘‘Tom has positioned the company extremely well to embark upon its next phase of growth,’’ the statement said. ‘‘On behalf of Food Lion’s employees, shareholders and customers, we sincerely thank him for his outstanding efforts and wish him well.’’

Smith called his career with Food Lion ‘‘rich and rewarding. I am very proud of our record of achievement and have great confidence in Food Lion’s future, its management team and board.

‘‘After almost 30 years of dedication and hard work, it is time to retire and give the company a new management team to lead it into the next millennium. I can think of no better time to make these changes than the present as Food Lion is in excellent shape, financially and operationally. I wish Bill McCanless and the new management team all the best.’’