| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (Grocery) |
| Founded | 1905 |
| Founder(s) | Florence Butt |
| Headquarters | San Antonio, Texas, United States |
| Area served | Texas and Mexico |
| Key people | Charles Butt, Chairman and CEO Craig Boyan[1], President and COO |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, gasoline, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks |
| Revenue | $15.50 billion USD (2008) |
| Employees | 76,000 (2010) |
| Website | heb.com |
HEB Grocery Company, LP (aka H-E-B Grocery Stores or simply H-E-B) is a privately held San Antonio, Texas-based supermarket chain with more than 315 stores throughout Texas and northern Mexico.[2][3] The company also operates Central Market, an upscale organic and fine foods retailer.[4]
H-E-B ranked No. 11 on Forbes' 2006 list of "America's Largest Private Companies."[5] H-E-B was named Retailer of the Year in 2010 by Progressive Grocer.[6] Supermarket News ranked H-E-B No. 13 in the 2008 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers."[7] Based on 2010 revenues, H-E-B is the twenty-fifth largest retailer in the United States.[8] It donates 5 percent of pre-tax profits to charity.[9]
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The company was founded on November 26, 1905 when Florence Butt opened the C.C. Butt Grocery Store on the ground floor of her family home in Kerrville, Texas.[10] In 1919, Howard Edward Butt, Florence's youngest son, took over the store upon his return from World War I. Shortly after becoming owner of his mother's small store, Howard tried four expansions into Central Texas, including one in Junction, all of which failed. Finally in 1927, Howard launched a successful second store in Del Rio, Texas, followed by the purchase of three grocery stores in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The first initials of Howard E. Butt became the name of the store.[11]
Charles, the youngest son of Howard E. Butt, became president of the H.E. Butt Grocery Company in 1971. As of 2010, Charles Butt is chairman and CEO of HEB Grocery Company, LP, having grown the business from annual sales of $250 million in 1971 to $13 billion in 2006. In 2010, Craig Boyan was named H-E-B's President and COO.[12] In 2003, the company was #14[13] on Forbes' list of largest privately held companies; H-E-B is also the largest privately held company in Texas.[14]
Headquartered in San Antonio, H-E-B operates more than 300 stores in over 150 communities across Texas.[15][16] As of late 2010, its operations serve approximately "55-plus" percent of the Texas market, according to Progressive Grocer.[17][18] with primary Texas markets including the San Antonio, Austin and Houston metro areas. The company does business in 5 different retail formats: general H-E-B stores, Central Market, H-E-B Plus, Mi Tienda and Joe V's Smart Shop. In 2010, the company announced plans to build 19 new stores in Texas.[19] H-E-B opened its first store outside of Texas in 1996, a 24,000-square-foot (2,200 m2) H-E-B Pantry store in Lake Charles; though the expansion was, in comparison, short lived and ultimately did not catch on with either planners or the community. The H-E-B Pantry store format was discontinued in 2000,[20] and the company closed its sole Louisiana store in 2003. Recently H-E-B offered consumers the opportunity to vote on possible designs for new stores as they expand into new communities.[21]
The company operates several manufacturing facilities in Texas, including one of the largest milk and bread processing plants in the Southwest.[22] H-E-B produces many of their own-brand products, including milk, ice cream, bread, snacks, and ready-cooked meats and meals. These and other private-label products are sold under various brands, including "Central Market Naturals", "Central Market Organics","H-E-B", "H-E-Buddy", "Hill Country Fare", "H-E-B Creamy Creations" ice cream, "H-E-B Mootopia" milk, and "H-E-B Fully Cooked."
Several stores include multi-tenant operations through third-party lease arrangements. Many stores include a bank operation and cellular kiosk. Common nationally recognized tenants include Sprint-Nextel, IBC Bank, Enterprise Rent-A-Car,[23] Panda Express, Chase Bank, Flexi-Compras, Auntie Anne's Pretzel, T-Mobile, Gold & Silver Buyers, Wells Fargo, and Maui Wowi.[24][25][26]
The H-E-B corporate offices have more authority over decisionmaking at individual H-E-B outlets in San Antonio than Foodarama does over individual La Fiesta chains in San Antonio. Because H-E-B is a regional chain, Elizabeth Allen of the San Antonio Express-News said that it is more "nimble" than national grocery companies such as Albertson's.[27]
In 1994, H-E-B introduced its Central Market concept in Austin. Central Market offers an organic and international food selection, including a European-style bakery and extensive wine and beer selections. The chain is now composed of eight stores (two in Austin and one each in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Plano, San Antonio, and Southlake.[28] H-E-B operates four different formats of stores that introduce general merchandise and elements of the Central Market concept: The Woodlands Market in The Woodlands in Montgomery County, Kingwood Market in the Kingwood section of Houston, and the Austin-Escarpment store in south Austin. A fourth store opened on March 22, 2008 in Westlake, and in 2009, the H-E-B in Beecaves was remodeled. H-E-B's Alon Market opened on October 17, 2008 in San Antonio.[29] In October 2007, H-E-B opened its Cypress Market store, located at the intersection of Highway 290 and Barker-Cypress. In November 2007, the 112,000 sq ft (10,400 m2) Vintage Market store opened in northwest Harris County in greater Houston.[30]
In 2004, the company launched three (in Austin, Corpus Christi, and Waco) H-E-B Plus! stores with an expanded focus on non-food categories, such as entertainment and other general merchandise. The company added three additional locations in 2005 (Corpus Christi, Round Rock and San Antonio). The stores offered several new departments including Do-It-Yourself and Texas Backyard, and greatly expanded product categories in baby, card and party, cosmetics, entertainment, housewares and toys.
Several other locations were later added, including stores in Flour Bluff (Corpus Christi), Beaumont, Katy, Killeen, Cypress, Victoria, Kyle,[31] Laredo, Leander,[32] Mission, Rio Grande City, San Juan, San Antonio,[23], Midland, and Pearland.[33][34][35]
In 2006, H-E-B opened Mi Tienda in South Houston (adjacent to Pasadena) in Greater Houston - a 63,000-square-foot (5,900 m2) Latino-themed store. Mi Tienda which means "my store" in Spanish includes a panaderia that offers homemade Mexican baked goods; a tortilleria, where employees make fresh tortillas; and a carneceria filled with marinated cuts of chicken, beef and pork. In addition, Mi Tienda also houses the Cocina restaurant, which serves tacos, tortas, carnitas, tamales and chicharrones, and an Aguas Frescas Bar that offers freshly made drinks.[36][37]
In 2010, H-E-B opened Joe V's Smart Shop, a brand featuring discount items modeled after discount grocer Aldi.[38] The first location opened was a 54,690-square-foot (5,100 m2) store located in northwest unincorporated Harris County, Texas,[39] near northwest Houston. The store format is smaller compared with a full service H-E-B store but double the size of an H-E-B Pantry store. A larger, second location with a 65,714-square-foot (6,100 m2) space opened in December in northeast unincorporated Harris County, Texas. The "Joe V" name was based on the name of an executive of the company who was involved in the development of this store format.[40]
In the mid-1980s local grocery chains Handy Andy and Centeno joined a lawsuit against H-E-B citing unfair pricing practices.[41] H-E-B eventually settled the suit out of court with Centeno in 1998 for $6.5 million and with Handy Andy, for which the settlement amount was undisclosed.[42][43]
Historically, the company is known for its charitable donations, with 5 percent of annual pretax earnings given to causes in the communities it operates in, including education and food banks.[44] An annual charitable program maintained by H-E-B since 2000 is the Excellence in Education Awards, in which teachers, administrators and schools in Texas are recognized with awards totaling $500,000 in contributions in 2009.[45]
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