Hy-Vee
 | |
| Company type | Employee-Owned |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (grocery) |
| Founded | Beaconsfield, Iowa, (1930) |
| Headquarters | West Des Moines, Iowa |
Number of locations | 235 (2014)[1] |
Key people | Randy Edeker, Chairman, CEO and President Mike Skokan, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, Sr. Vice President Ron Taylor, Executive Vice President North Region Paula Correy, Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Vice President Steve Meyer, General Counsel, Secretary, Executive Vice President John Wendel, Executive Vice President, West Region Tom Watson, Executive Vice President, East Region Jay Marshall, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Merchandising Andy McCann, Chief Health Officer and Senior Vice President |
| Products | bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, gas, general grocery, meat and seafood, pharmacy, HealthMarket, wine & spirits, general merchandise, lawn and garden, fuel/convenience stores. |
| Revenue | $8 billion (2013) |
Number of employees | 62,000[2] |
| Website | hy-vee.com |
Hy-Vee /ˌhaɪˈviː/ is an employee-owned chain of 235 supermarkets located throughout the Midwest United States in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The largest Hy-Vee stores are full-service supermarkets with bakeries, delicatessens, floral departments, dine-in and carryout food service, wine and spirits, pharmacies, HealthMarkets (natural and organic products) and coffee kiosks (Caribou Coffee and Starbucks). Hy-Vee has also added fuel stations with convenience stores to some of its properties. Hy-vee has a rewards program called Fuel saver. This program gives customers a discount on gas for buying special items each week in their ad.
Hy-Vee is known for its longtime advertising slogan, "Where there's a helpful smile in every aisle". The slogan was adopted for Hy-Vee's first television commercial in 1963. When the jingle became a full song in the '90s, its music was written by Annie Meacham and James Poulsen.
Hy-Vee's largest store opened in mid-August 2012 in Urbandale, Iowa, with 95,283 square feet (8,852.1 m2) of retail space.
History
The company was founded by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg when they opened a general store in Beaconsfield, Iowa, in 1930. More stores were started, and in 1938, the company incorporated into Hyde & Vredenburg, Inc. Hyde & Vredenburg had 15 stores in Iowa and Missouri at that point including the Leon Hy-Vee and Lamoni Hy-Vee.[3] In 1945 Hyde & Vredenburg moved its corporate headquarters from Lamoni to Chariton, Iowa, after acquiring the Chariton Wholesale Company.
Lamoni had been headquarters of the RLDS Church. Both Hyde and Vredenburg were members of the church. Vredenburg's previous partnership of Vredenburgh & Lewis was associated with the General Supply Company which was a church affiliated business based in Lamoni (Vredenburg was listed as president and Hyde was a director when General Store was formally incorporated in 1922). The initial name of the partnership was the Supply Stores from 1930 to 1935 when it was made singular 1935 as the Supply Store (with each town's name preceding it) which remained its name until 1952. In 1937 the affiliation with the church name was dissolved and the formal ownership was called Hyde & Vredenburg although continuing the use the Supply Store name in each individual store. In creating the new company its ownership plan involved an ownership by individual store managers setting the stage for its eventual majority employee ownership.[4][5][6]
The Hy-Vee name, a contraction of Hyde and Vredenburg, was adopted in 1952 as the winning entry of an employee contest. The first store to open under the Hy-Vee name opened in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1953. In 1960 the became employee owned by the Employees’ Trust Fund.[7] Its name was officially changed to Hy-Vee Food Stores, Inc., in 1963. In 1969 Hy-Vee expanded into Minnesota after acquiring the Swanson Stores chain based in Cherokee, Iowa. That year it opened its first Drug Town pharmacy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; in 2005 all Drug Town stores were renamed Hy-Vee Drugstores in order to reflect the relationship between the chain's pharmacies and supermarkets.[8]
Hy-Vee is known to separate out departments into separate buildings as requirements dictate or to best serve the customer. This is most commonly seen by the construction of a separate building for Hy-Vee Gas. One of the more interesting situations is the Wine and Spirits department for the Prairie Village, Kansas store is in a separate building across the street in Kansas City, Missouri. In Minnesota, where grocery stores cannot sell alcoholic beverages over 3.2% alcohol by volume, some Hy-Vee stores have separate Hy-Vee branded liquor stores in adjacent facilities.
Hy-Vee continued expanding during the 1970s and 1980s, opening stores in South Dakota (1975), Nebraska (1977), Illinois (1979), and Kansas (1988). Hy-Vee's 100th store, which was also its first to use electronic cash registers, opened in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1975. By the end of 1989 Hy-Vee had 172 stores in seven states.[9] In 1995 Hy-Vee moved its corporate headquarters from Chariton to its current home in West Des Moines, Iowa, while shortening its name to Hy-Vee, Inc. The company still has its primary distribution center in Chariton; a second distribution center is located in Cherokee, Iowa.
Throughout its history Hy-Vee has branched out from its retail operations by acquiring several companies that provide services to its stores. Hy-Vee's non-retail subsidiaries are:
- D & D Foods, Inc., a supplier of freshly prepared salads, dips, meat and entree items based in Omaha, Nebraska
- Florist Distributing, Inc., a distributor of flowers and plants based in Des Moines, Iowa
- Hy-Vee Construction,[10] L.C., a construction company based in Des Moines
- Lomar Distributing, Inc., a specialty food distributor based in Des Moines
- Midwest Heritage Bank, FSB, with branch locations and offices in Iowa
- Perishable Distributors of Iowa, Ltd., a distributor of meat, seafood, cheese and dairy items based in Ankeny, Iowa
Hy-Vee Inc. employs over 60,000 individuals and is the largest employer in the state of Iowa. The company has annual sales of over $7.3 billion. In 2011, Hy-Vee ranked 48th on Forbes magazine's annual list of the largest privately owned companies in the United States.[2]
Shortly after same-sex marriage became legal in Iowa, Hy-Vee expanded their spousal benefits to include gay couples. The new policy was implemented on all Hy-Vee stores, even in states such as Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, and Missouri that do not protect gay individuals. This action has made Hy-Vee one of the most gay-friendly companies in the Midwest.[11]
Hy-Vee opened its first LEED-certified store in Madison, on October 27, 2009.[12]
In 2012, Hy-Vee, Inc. began the Hy-Vee Fuel Saver program which allows customers to earn discounts on fuel by purchasing select items. The discount is loaded onto a card that is inserted at the gas pump of all Hy-Vee Gas locations, Casey's General Stores and certain Shell Oil Company stations. Customers have thirty days to use the earned points before they expire.[13]
Sponsorships
Hy-Vee purchased the naming rights to the Iowa Events Center's exhibition hall in 2001; the venue was completed in December 2004.
Hy-Vee serves as title or presenting sponsor for multiple major sporting events:
- Hy-Vee Triathlon, a triathlon in Des Moines, Iowa (since 2007)
- the Iowa–Nebraska football rivalry is officially branded as the Hy-Vee Heroes Game (since 2011)
- Big Four Classic, an annual doubleader in Des Moines, Iowa, involving Iowa's four Division I men's basketball teams (since 2012)
- Drake Relays, athletics event held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa (since 2013)
From 2000 to 2006 the company sponsored the Hy-Vee Classic, a golf tournament for the Women's Senior Golf Tour, later renamed the LPGA Legends Tour.
Hy-Vee has served as a sponsor of Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals since 2001, and in 2009 replaced Price Chopper as the official grocery store of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs.[14]
Board of Directors
Randy Edeker, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President
Paula Correy, Chief Administrative Officer, Senior Vice President
Steve Meyer, Executive Vice President, Secretary, General Counsel
Ron Taylor, Executive Vice President of Operations, North Region
Jon Wendel, Executive Vice President of Operations, West Region
Tom Watson, Executive Vice President of Operations, East Region
Mike Skokan, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, Senior Vice President
Jay Marshall, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Merchandising
Rose Mitchell, Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs
Monte Wiese, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain
Rob Eslick, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Southwest District
Andy Streit, Store Director - Davenport #2
Deb Riedel, Store Director – Rock Island
Jim Merulla, Store Director – Marshalltown Drugstore
Jim Carney, Store Director – West Des Moines #3
Jeff Suchomel, Store Director – Kirksville
Greg Dillavou, Store Director – Lincoln #3
Jim Simmons, Store Director - Omaha #4
Ginny Ward, Store Director - Omaha #2
References
- ^ http://www.hy-vee.com/company/about-hy-vee/default.aspx
- ^ a b "Hy-Vee, The Largest Private Companies". Forbes. 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
- ^ vhttp://www.hy-vee.com/company/about-hy-vee/history/
- ^ "Chapter7rev2". Welcometobibleverses.org. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ http://www.hy-vee.com/webres/File/Lamoni_Years.pdf
- ^ Spohnheimer. "Ames Tribune Weekly Photo". Ameshistoricalsociety.org. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- ^ Sep. 3, 2012 Mark Hamstra (2012-09-03). "Hy Vee Builds a Legacy of Employee Empowerment | Retailer Awards content from". Supermarket News. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Hy-Vee, Inc. (press release) (2005-06-08). "Drug Town Changes Name to Hy-Vee Drugstore". Retrieved 2006-09-03.
- ^ FundingUniverse.com. "Hy-Vee, Inc., Company History". Retrieved 2006-09-03.
- ^ http://www.hy-vee.com/company/press-room/press-releases/hy-vee-acquires-total-stake-hy-vee-weitz-construction.aspx
- ^ http://www.omaha.com/article/20090630/NEWS01/706309932/0/FRONTPAGE
- ^ "Hy-Vee Plans First Grocery Store in Wisconsin". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
- ^ "Hy-Vee Fuel Saver TM Terms and Conditions". Hy-Vee Inc. Retrieved 2013-04-28.
- ^ Hy-Vee, Inc. (press release) (2009-04-14). "Hy-Vee Becomes Official Grocery Partner of Kansas City Chiefs". Retrieved 2009-09-15.