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Meeting |
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September 20, 2005 |
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 FRED
MORGANTHALLPresident, Harris Teeter By John Galles Our speaker was Fred Morganthall, President of Harris Teeter, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ruddick Corporation. Harris Teeter is a food market chain that operates in the six-state area of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida. Ruddick Corporation is traded on the NY Stock Exchange at RDK. In addition to its 138 retail stores, Harris Teeter also operates grocery, frozen food, and perishable distribution centers in Greensboro and Indian Trail, NC, as well as the Hunter Farms milk and ice cream facility in High Point, NC. It is headquartered in Matthews, NC and currently has approximately 13,900 employees. With a background in retail merchandising from Proctor & Gamble, Viking Foods and Spartan Stores, Fred Morganthall was appointed President in 1997 after serving as Senior Vice President for operations. Fred opened his presentation with a pitch for public schools. By linking your VIC card with the school of your choice, contributions will be made to your selected school for every purchase you make at Harris Teeter. Simply go to www.harristeeter.com and click on VIC promotions and then click on Together In Education to participate. Fred suggested that predicting the future of the Grocery Industry is risky and usually wrong, but that he would continue nevertheless. He categorized stores according to the "EST" theory espoused in the book, Winning at Retail, written by Neil Stern. He wrote that in order to be great at retail, a store needed to be (1)-cheapest, (2)-easiest, (3)-quickest, (4)-hottest, or (5)-biggest. He commented that a retailer must be great at one of the -est's and, at least, serviceable in the other four categories. Otherwise, he said that stores fall into the "black hole." Those that have fallen into the "black hole" are A&P, K-Mart, and Winn-Dixie. These stores fell into the black hole because they were only average at each of the categories and not great at any one. He went on to describe several of the categories and stores that fall into them. Those with the "cheapest" identity include WalMart, Aldie, Costco, Family Dollar, and Dollar General. He went on to say that once you are known as the cheapest, you must stay in that category. Among the "hottest" or specialty stores are Earth Fare, Whole Foods and Fresh Market. These generally include organics, produce or prepared foods. Those with regional identities include Harris Teeter which tries to be among the "easiest." He described that they want to be the fastest checkout in town. They want to be known for convenience, fast and friendly service. He also mentioned that Harris Teeter tries to "minor" in hot. They provide a wide variety of produce including over 500 conventional produce types and about 85 organic types. He also said that Harris Teeter prides itself in seafood, meats and hard-to-find groceries. He really believes that most people have forgotten how to cook. While Harris Teeter still offers flour and sugar, most foods purchased are prepared foods. They work to make it easy for people to prepare dinner. Looking back ten to twenty years, he said who could predict that we would be paying for water like we do today. He said Harris Teeter now sells more bottled water than they do soft drinks. He also mentioned that pet food is not sold as frequently as twenty years ago. Fred Morganthall predicted that the grocery business would change dramatically over the next ten years, but he said the best thing Harris Teeter can do is make sure they have what their customer wants tomorrow based upon their purchasing decisions today.
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Revised: January 24, 2008.