Houchens Industries

Houchens Industries

Type	Private
Industry	Grocery Store, Insurance and Web Development
Founded	1918
Headquarters	Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States
Key people	James Gipson, CEO Gordon Minter, CFO Ervin Houchens, founder
Revenue	US$2.36 Billion (FY 2005)
Employees	11,487 (2007)

Houchens Industries, is an American employee-owned company, in business since 1918 when it began as a small grocery operated by founder Ervin Houchens in rural Barren County, Kentucky. The company is headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The company runs about 425 grocery and convenience stores. Sales in 2006 were just under $2 billion., with approximately 10,500 employees.

Operations

The company is best known as a grocer, owning and operating convenience stores (Jr. Food Stores, Tobacco Shoppe) and supermarkets (Houchens Markets, IGA, Save-A-Lot, Mad Butcher). In 2004, Houchens acquired Food Giant supermarkets, which operates stores under the Food Giant, Market Place and Piggly Wiggly name.

In recent years, Houchens Industries has diversified greatly, with acquisitions of a Bowling Green-based construction company, as well as recycling, insurance, cigarette manufacturing, and warehousing.

In 2004, Houchens acquired Hitcents, an Internet marketing and development company founded by two high school students from Bowling Green, and now headquartered at the Western Kentucky University Center for Research and Development (which is itself supported by Houchens Industries).

In 2007, the company sold its Commonwealth Brands subsidiary - the fourth-largest cigarette producer in the United States - to the British company Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, for $1.9 billion. It had acquired the company in 2001; it was the first time that Houchens had ever sold one of its acquisitions.

Diversification continued in 2007 when Houchens announced that it would acquire Hilliard Lyons, a full-service stock broker and investment firm based in Louisville, from PNC Financial Services. The sale was completed in March 2008.

In January 2008, Houchens announced that it would acquire 14 convenience stores which sell Shell Oil products from Bowling Green businessman Jerry Browning. The stores are located in Bowling Green and surrounding towns.

In April 2008, Buehler Foods of Jasper, Indiana, signed a letter of intent to sell the company to Houchens.

In January 2010, White's Grocery, in the Tri-Cities, Tennessee area sold their local grocery chain to Houchens.

History

Houchens first store

The company traces its beginnings to 1917, when founder Ervin Houchens opened his first store ("BG Wholesale") at the age of 19 in a shed in southern Kentucky. This shed, along with other historical structures, has been well preserved and is open to the public. He sold the company in 1983. The current CEO, Jimmie Gibson, began with the company in 1965, as an accountant.

Other

• The company has been completely owned by its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) since 1988. Employees select members of the board of directors and vote on the sale of any substantial assets.

• Houchens Industries sponsors the annual Kentucky High School Athletic Association's Girls' "Sweet 16" Basketball Championship Tournament, held annually at WKU's E.A. Diddle Arena.

• Houchens also contributes heavily to the community, most notably Western Kentucky University, even having acquiring naming rights to WKU's football home, L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green.

External links

• Houchen's Industries

• Hoovers.com factsheet