Dan Sanders Remains Bullish About Acme; Parent Supervalu Lays Off 800 Associates

Despite continued poor earnings and sales results and from its parent company, Supervalu (which also recently announced that it will lay off 800 more associates), Acme Markets president Dan Sanders continued to send a message of optimism and hope about his organization. Sanders addressed approximately 220 direct sales reps, distributors and brokers at the first AMR/MAFTO meeting of the year held earlier this month at the Radisson Hotel in King of Prussia, PA.

Beginning his speech in a self-deprecating manner -“being president of Acme is more dangerous than flying a U2 aircraft” (Sanders is a former reconnaissance pilot who flew in the first Gulf War), Sanders was blunt in his analysis of Acme’s current business trends.

He stated that he and his team are working hard to gain improved sales results, focusing on reducing everyday prices as well as finding solutions to the company’s high labor and pension fund costs.

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Sanders’ speech focused on what he believed were the intangible assets (four pillars) essential for success – leadership, culture, execution and wellness.

On leadership, Sanders declared that Acme needs to be more action-oriented. “Leaders can delegate authority, but not responsibility, he asserted, adding that authentic leaders reflect a constructive ability and that pride feeds the flame of success. He singled out Acme’s store directors as leaders who help generate hope and acknowledge that during a transition process there are opportunities to learn “who we are.” “Leaders always have a great energy that goes away from them, not towards them. Poor leaders suck the energy out of you. Leadership is a choice, not a position.”

And specifically, when dealing with issue of culture, Sanders quoted author and evangelist Patrick Morley, “it may be that poor people are luckiest because they have the hope that if they had money they would be happier.” Sanders added that success extends beyond materialism.

He explained that it is important to serve and enrich the lives of others, adding that the company has donated one million meals over the past year. Sanders also praised Acme’s 13,000 associates, point out that the employees range in ages from 14 to 90 and the about one-third of the associates are under the age of 27. He related a story of a cashier who worked for Acme for 35 years and at her retirement celebration she expressed her love for the job.”This is my family,” she said in reference to her fellow associates and her customers. This is my life and there are many more like me,” she said.

On the topic of execution, Sanders declared that the economic theories are obsolete and that knowledge is the most critical factor in successfully executing strategy. He acknowledged the importance of utilizing new technologies available, but those tools were not as important as the assets that people bring to success.

Sanders firmly believes that supermarkets have a role to play in educating consumers about wellness by providing them with healthy choices. That, he felt can be achieved by employee proper training.

During the question and answer follow up, Sanders noted that Acme’s new replacement store in Bryn Mawr, PA should open in May. He also addressed the issue of attracting younger customers and said that prepared foods was an area that the company’s was lagging. Company veteran Mary Washinko is heading up that initiative. Acme has also recently launched a new website, and shortly will be adding a new mobile application and has increased its product assortment.

When asked a question about the importance of local food brokers to the chain, Sanders responded by saying that regional and local brokers remained very important to the future of the banner, particularly when it comes to presenting local items (Johnson’s Caramel Corn was the example he cited).

On the national level, on the heels of Supervalu’s recent third quarter loss of $750 million and its continued identical sales decreases (this period that number was negative 2.9 marking the 17 consecutive quarters the company has shown an ID revenue drop), the Eden Prairie, MN based retailer/wholesaler announced staff reductions of about 800 positions including existing jobs and open role eliminations. The impacted positions are primarily in general and administrative departments with approximately 185 of those cuts coming from merchandising in both the enterprise and banner offices. Store level personnel are not included in these cuts.

Supervalu said the decision is the result of work that began last year to identify ways to “flatten our organization and reduce work duplication and inefficient processes. It is an opportunity to streamline our processes and become more efficient and cost effective as an organization.”

About 20 associates were affected at Acme.