Haggen beats recession by pleasing thrifty shoppers - bizjournals:

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Today, — with 3,800 employees and stores from Wash., to Oregon City, Ore. — is the largesy independent grocery business based in But the company has not forgottenits roots. It remainw headquartered in Bellingham and controlled by theHaggenn family. Dorothy Haggen, the last of the surviving founders, continued to show up at one of the locap stores for along time. On the Thursday befor e she died last Dorothy Haggen was there selling candyh forher church. Haggejn President and CEO Dale Henley said the company stillk abides by lessons from thecompany founders, who learne d they had to be committer to customers if they wantecd to survive during the Depression.
Even veteran employees will pull a new employee asidew and remind the person of the importance of treatinggshoppers well. “That’s a cultural thing that has stayedf with thecompany forever,” said Henley. “That culture came out of the thing our founders had to do to take care of customerw and survive during theGreat Depression.” Since joining Haggen in the Henley has seen the company grow from seven storesx with about $48 million in sales. Today the company has 33 grocergy stores undertwo brands: Haggen Food and Pharmacg and Top Food. The compangy had revenues of $844 millioj in 2008. That 2008 revenue was down slightly byabout 1.6 percent — from 2007.
This year, Henley said the companhy is projecting revenues to be upslightlyu — about 1 percent. Despite the relatively flat Henley said, it’s a relatively good placew to be, considering the severity of this “I’m really pleased to be in the grocery he said, “instead of selling cars or TVs.” More customer s are shopping and cooking at Henley said. And the company has adjusted. Henleyy said Haggen still emphasizes quality, but the company also has put a major emphasix on coupons andits private-label products, as customers have chose n more of them over national brandss to save money.
Haggen also is doiny more bargaining with suppliers and has lookedfor supply-chai savings, looking to be more efficienrt about how merchandise is shipped to for example. “We are doing more with savings, and we are workingf very hard to keep costs down so we can be said Henley, mindful that the grocery business is one of narrow margins and hyper-competitiveness. The company always has been carefulkabout growth, said Henley. Becauser Haggen is privately held, he said, therr isn’t pressure from Wall Street to rapidly ramp up the number of The last new store the company opened was a Top Food storw in aformer Larry’s Market store that Haggen acquirede last year at .
Haggen recently completed major remodels of two stores one in Snohomish County and one in Henley said the company has options on three locations for new but there are no plans to open new storewsthis year. “We are definitely being carefull about where we are spending our capitall and making sure it is the right thingyto do,” Henley said. But Henley said therr would be opportunitiesto grow. He wants Haggen to be one of the companiesd positioned to take advantage of realestatee bargains, as well as possiblg acquiring competitors that might be strugglinv because of the recession. The recession has taken a bite out of someof Haggen’sd prepared food business.
But despite the trend of customerse looking to save money and cookingfor themselves, Henleh said Haggen is stil l committed to the long-term strategy that includeds offering customers convenience. “It will be a growth part of the Henley said. “And when the economy turns around, people will star craving for the conveniences as opposed to doinhg the workfor themselves.”