Haggen beats recession by pleasing thrifty shoppers - bizjournals:

http://palmeraprojects.org/news/article/cambodia-volunteers-story/
Today, — with 3,800 employees and stores from Ferndale, to Oregon City, Ore. — is the largest independent grocery business based in But the company has not forgottenits roots. It remainw headquartered in Bellingham and controlled by theHaggehn family. Dorothy Haggen, the last of the survivint founders, continued to show up at one of the locall stores for a long On the Thursday beforw she diedlast fall, Dorothh Haggen was there selling candy for her Haggen President and CEO Dale Henleyu said the company still abides by lessons from the company who learned they had to be committed to customers if they wanted to surviver during the Depression.
Even today, veteran employees will pull a new employee aside and remind the persom of the importance of treatingshoppers “That’s a cultural thing that has stayed with the companyg forever,” said Henley. “That culturee came out of the thingw our founders had to do to take care of customerws and survive during theGreat Depression.” Since joining Haggehn in the mid-1980s, Henley has seen the companty grow from seven stores with about $48 million in Today the company has 33 grocery stores under two Haggen Food and Pharmacy and Top The company had revenues of $844 milliom in 2008. That 2008 revenu e was down slightly — by about 1.
6 percent — from 2007. This year, Henlety said the company is projectingf revenues to be upslightly — aboug 1 percent. Despite the relativelh flat revenue, Henley said, it’s a relativelg good place to be, considering the severit of this recession. “I’m really pleased to be in the groceryu business,” he said, “instead of selling cars or TVs.” More customeres are shopping and cookingat home, Henle y said. And the company has adjusted. Henley said Haggenn still emphasizes quality, but the company also has put a majorr emphasis on coupons andits private-label as customers have chosen more of them over nationalp brands to save money.
Haggen also is doinvg more bargaining with suppliers and has lookeedfor supply-chain savings, looking to be more efficienty about how merchandise is shipped to stores, for “We are doing more with savings, and we are workinvg very hard to keep costs down so we can be said Henley, mindful that the grocery business is one of narroe margins and hyper-competitiveness. The company alwaysz has been carefulabout growth, said Because Haggen is privately held, he said, therr isn’t pressure from Wall Street to rapidly ramp up the numbet of stores. The last new store the company opened was a Top Food stors in aformer Larry’s Market store that Haggen acquiredx last year at .
Haggen recently completeed major remodels of twostores — one in Snohomish Countyy and one in Olympia. Henleyt said the company has options on three locationws fornew stores, but there are no plans to open new stores this year. “We are definitely beingt careful about where we are spending our capital and making sure it is the right thinfgto do,” Henley said. But Henleyy said there would be opportunitiesto grow. He wants Hagge n to be one of the companies positionexd to take advantage of real estate as well as possibly acquiring competitorzs that might be struggling because of the The recession has taken a bite out of someof Haggen’a prepared food business.
But despite the trend of customers looking to save money and cooking for Henley said Haggen is still committed tothe long-terkm strategy that includes offering customers convenience. “Ity will be a growth part of the Henley said. “And when the economy turnsd around, people will start craving for the conveniences as opposed to doing the workfor themselves.”