Houchens Industries is an American employee-owned company, in business since 1918 when it began as a small groceryoperated 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 and supermarkets. 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. Price Less Foods/Price Less IGA is the newest brand of stores to join Houchens.
Price Less Foods and Price Less IGA
Price Less Foods and Price Less IGA are a chain supermarkets located in Alabama, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Virginia. They operate on a cost-plus format. They price their products at the cost and then add 10 percent to the final cost at the checkout. They do not have rewards cards or weekly sales ads. The only difference between Price Less Foods and Price Less IGA is that "Foods" does not sell IGA brand products. They sell Best Choice and Always Save brands as well as other top national brands. They currently have 28 locations, and are expanding.
History
The company traces its beginnings to 1917, when founder Ervin Houchens opened his first store 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 Gipson, started with the company in 1965, as an accountant. In 2004, acquired Food Giant, which operated mainly in the Midwest. In 2007, the company sold its Commonwealth Brands subsidiary, the fourth-largest cigarette producer in the United States, to the British companyImperial Tobacco Group PLC for $1.9 billion. It had acquired the company from its founder Brad Kelley in 2001; it was the first time that Houchens had 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 July 2008, Houchens acquired juice maker Tampico Beverages. In January 2010, White's Fresh Foods, in the Tri-Cities, Tennessee area sold their local grocery chain to Houchens. In January 2020, during a Board of Directors meeting, Jimmie Gipson, after nearly 55 years of service with the company, announced his retirement effective March 31st, 2020. The Board of Directors has elected Executive Vice President Dion Houchins to succeed Jimmie as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board.
Houchens also contributes heavily to the community, most notably Western Kentucky University, even having acquiring naming rights to WKU's football home, Houchens Industries-L. T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green.
