Building a Grocery Empire: The Success Story of H-E-B Grocery Company

Bhoraniya Huda Hifzur Rehman

Feb 4, 2023 — 8 min read

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by H-E-B Grocery Company.

The retail industry in the world is booming. The need to find all grocery purchases in one place has led to many brands successfully setting up their own supermarket chains. Despite the competition, these small-time stores have become fairly well-established.

H-E-B is an American supermarket chain that started its business in Texas. Currently, the chain has more than 340 stores established across Texas and Mexico. The company has also floated an organic food retailer chain named Central Market.

Read on with us to learn more about H-E-B and their journey to success.

H-E-B - Company Highlights

Company Name	H-E-B Grocery Company
Headquarters	San Antonio, Texas
Sector	Retail
Founder	Florence Butt
Founded	26th November 1905
Valuation	$17 Billion (2022)
Revenue	$38 Billion (2022)
Formerly Known As	C.C Butt Grocery Store

H-E-B - About
H-E-B - Industry
H-E-B - Founders and Team
H-E-B - Startup Story
H-E-B - Mission and Vision
H-E-B - Name, Tagline, and Logo
H-E-B - Business Model
H-E-B - Revenue Model
H-E-B - Employees
H-E-B - Challenges Faced
H-E-B - Mergers and Acquisitions
H-E-B - Growth
H-E-B - Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns
H-E-B - Awards and Achievements
H-E-B - Competitors
H-E-B - Future Plans

H-E-B - About

H-E-B is a food and grocery retail store chain. It operates most of its stores in Texas and Mexico region. Despite this, the company enjoys good sales and a strong customer base. H-E-B was established in 1905 by a woman named Florence Butt.

H-E-B creates some of its own products, like ice cream, milk, snacks, and ready-to-cooked meats. The company has established itself rather strongly in Texas holding almost 55% of the market share. Its most important markets are San Antonio, Laredo, Austin, and Houston.

H-E-B - Grocery Retail Industry

H-E-B operates in the Grocery retail industry. The market size of this industry is around $818.6 Billion. Though competitive, the industry is expected to grow at 0.9% this year.

Since the last five years, the industry has maintained a growth rate of 2.7%. The grocery and supermarket industry in the U.S. is at the third rank on the basis of market size and overall at the fourteenth rank.

H-E-B - Founders and Team

H-E-B was launched as a grocery store called CC Butt Grocery store in 1905. Florence Butt set up the store in her home in Kerrville, Texas.

Florence Butt

Florence Butt opened the CC Butt Grocery store. She was born in Buena Vista, Mississippi, in 1864. She was the only girl in her class when she completed her graduation. After that, she married Clarence C Butt and moved to Kerrville, Texas.

Since her husband was unable to work, Florence accumulated a few groceries. With 60$ she opened a Grocery store. Her two sons acted as Delivery boys while she oversaw the daily operations. In 1919 her son Howard Butt returned from the Navy, and Florence handed the store to him.

H-E-B - Startup Story

The CC Butt Grocery store was initially set up to run household expenses. After Florence's son returned from the Navy, she handed over the store to him. Howard Edward Butt set up four other stores in Central Texas, none of which succeeded.

In 1927 Howard bought three stores in Del Rio, Texas. He named the store after his initials, i.e., H.E.B. In 1971, Charles, the son of Howard, became the company's President. With his efforts, he moved the company from annual sales of $250 million in 1971 to $13 billion in 2006.

H-E-B - Mission and Vision

The vision statement for H-E-B is as follows:

"Here, everyone belongs."

The company's mission statement aims to boost local farmers' efforts. They also aim to develop and execute social efforts benefitting the populace, customers, and employees. The mission statement of H-E-B is as follows :

"We're in the people business. We happen to sell groceries."

H-E-B - Name, Tagline, and Logo

The company has maintained three taglines. It constantly strives to achieve what the taglines advocate:

Here Everything's Better
Healthy Food at H-E-B
Helping here

H-E-B has been consistent with its brand image. The logo for the same is a horizontal badge with rounded edges. This ellipsoid has a double frame, and the main area has been done in a bright red and white palette. The color combination depicts professionalism, strength, and progressiveness.

The primary version of this logo is a red badge with a white H E B inscription. It follows an extra bold sans-serif font. In the secondary version, the white badge is projected on a red background.

H-E-B - Business Model

H-E-B's key resources are product inventory, supply chain and logistics, store network, and the employees who work hard. Its success is also dependent on its sub-brands which include the names like Central Market, H.E.B. Plus, Mi Tienda, Jow V's Smart Shop, IT and communications infrastructure, etc.

The partners with which the company works can be divided into the categories like vendor and supplier partners, storage and distribution partners, branding and marketing partners, community partners, and strategic and alliance partners.

H-E-B partnered with Instakart and the Animal Defense League of Texas in the past few years. The company has various product ranges, including fruits, dairy products, frozen items, baby and toy, pet and outdoor, kitchen, office, school, etc.

H-E-B - Revenue Model

As per reports, H-E-B Grocery Companie's revenue is $21 Billion annually in 2021. The company has around 47K employees and adds to the employee count by 7% yearly. The estimated revenue per employee is around $178,946.

H-E-B - Employees

H-E-B focuses on giving its employees the rest and breaks they require. Apart from providing a competitive salary, the company offers the benefits like dental and health insurance, disability insurance, adoption assistance, family medical leave, flexible work schedule, parental leaves, relocation assistance, performance bonus, etc.

H-E-B - Challenges Faced

H-E-B was initially one of the few supermarket chains in the Texas area. That is the prime reason they were able to make it big. However, in the last few years, Walmart went into an expansion spree, increasing its store count from 253 to 372. That led to a downfall in the customer base as many of them shifted to Walmart due to reduced prices.

After the Pandemic, H-E-B had to face labor issues. Not many of them were willing to come back to work despite the company offering a competitive wage of $15 per hour. They were more interested in restaurant jobs than the ones offered by supermarkets.

Lastly, E-commerce has cut a significant portion of the grocery market. Companies like Amazon are setting new customer experience parameters, and it is hard for H-E-B to match up. Though the company uses its website to garner sales, it would take time before it becomes hugely successful.

H-E-B - Mergers and Acquisitions

H-E-B acquired the below-mentioned company in 2018:

Acquiree name	Money	Date of announcement
Favor	Undisclosed	15th February 2018

For 113 years, H-E-B never merged or acquired any company. In 2018 they acquired Favor which was an on-demand delivery outfit. It helped H-E-B simplify its delivery process for items ordered from the website.

H-E-B - Growth

2022 was a challenging year as inflation led to people cutting their spending. Yet H-E-B showed a hike of 12% in the average consumer transaction value. This was high than all the other supermarket chains operating. Apart from that, the average spending for H-E-B was at $64, again the highest.

H-E-B - Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns

In their latest commercial, H-E-B reinforces the concept of taking care of the consumers. They are propagating how the company is offering the best quality services, so everyone is taken care of.

From health prescriptions to immunizations, the ad shows how H-E-B is striving to take care of Texans. Have a look at the commercial here:

H-E-B - Awards and Achievements

A few awards H-E-B has won over the years are:

Grocery Dive named H-E-B as the Grocer of the year for 2020 for their response to the Pandemic.
In the BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards, H-E-B is most trusted for offering high-quality products.
BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards also showed H-E-B to have the highest trust score among most competitors.
H-E-B won the Gold Shorty award for their Holiday Even Brighter campaign that they ran in 2021.

H-E-B - Competitors

Some of H-E-B Grocery Companie's competitors are:

Hannaford Supermarkets
Safeway
The Fresh Market
Publix
Whole Foods Market
Winn-Dixie
Walmart
Costco
Trader Joe's
Amazon

H-E-B - Future Plans

In 2022, H-E-B established 5 new stores in Texas and areas around it. Apart from that, H-E-B have entered the Wellness primary care clinic segment. The company plans to add frozen capabilities to its stores in Temple, Texas. This project alone would grow their facility footprint by 325,000 square feet.

The company is also venturing into adding home goods with food items in its stores. They have already done so in their New Braunfels, Texas store. This section is named Home by H-E-B and would include items like throw pillows, candles, home décor, textiles, etc. In the future, they would also add the feature to other stores.

FAQs

What does H-E-B stand for?

H-E-B stands for Howard Edward Butt. He was the son of the H-E-B store founder named Florence Butt.

What kind of stores does H-E-B offer?

H-E-B offers a variety of stores like Central Market, H.E.B. Plus, Mi Tienda, and Joe V's Smart Shop.

What is H-E-B best known for?

H-E-B is popular for multiple reasons. One of the prime reasons is its creativity in classic snacks such as apple pie-flavored potato chips. It is also known for its Café Ole brand, house-made frozen pizzas, cheese puffs, etc.

Who is the founder of H-E-B Grocery Company?

H-E-B Grocery Company was started by a woman named Florence Butt in 1905 as the CC Butt Grocery store.

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