百大雇主品牌 – 5 – Wegmans Food Markets – New York US
Top company by employee – 5 – Wegmans Food Markets – New York US
- 43927 employees
www.wegmans.com
Industry: Retail – Food/Grocery
Ownership: Private
State: New YorkRank: 5
Previous rank: 4
2011 revenue ($ millions): $6,335What makes it so great?
Turnover is an exceptionally low 3.6% at the Northeastern grocery chain, which lets employees reward one another with gift cards for good service. Many workers like it there so much they bring in relatives—one in five employees are related.Headquarters:
Rochester, NY
Website: www.wegmans.com
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| Type | Private Family business |
|---|---|
| Industry | Grocery |
| Founded | Rochester, New York (1916) |
| Founder(s) | John Wegman Walter Wegman |
| Headquarters | Gates, New York, U.S. |
| Number of locations | 83 stores (2013) [1] |
| Area served | Mid-Atlantic states |
| Key people | Danny Wegman, Chairman and CEO Colleen Wegman, President |
| Revenue |  $6.25 billion (2012)[2][3][4] |
| Employees | 44,000+ (2013) |
| Website | www.wegmans.com |
Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a family-owned U.S. regional supermarket chain headquartered in Gates, New York, nearRochester.[5][6] Wegmans has 83 stores[1] in the mid-Atlantic region, in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland,Massachusetts, and Virginia. Founded in 1916 in Rochester, Wegmans has appeared on Fortune’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list since its inception in 1998, and has ranked among the top 10 for eight consecutive years.[7] Food Network recognized it with its award for Best Grocery Store in 2007,[8] and Consumer Reports ranked it the top large U.S. grocery chain in 2012.[9] It was also profiled as part of “Here Are The Jobs” segment on MSNBC‘s PoliticsNation on July 6, 2012.
History[edit]
Map of Wegmans stores (larger dots for areas with more stores)
Wegmans is a privately owned company, founded in 1916 by John and Walter Wegman as the Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company. Wegmans is headquartered in the Rochester suburb of Gates. Danny Wegman is CEO. His daughter, Colleen Wegman, is president; his other daughter, Nicole Wegman, is vice-president of restaurant operations. His father, Robert, who died in 2006, was chairman. Robert was the son of co-founder Walter. During his life, Robert Wegman distinguished himself as a pioneer in the retail food business, as well as a generous donor to educational institutions and other charities.[11][12]
In 1968, the chain expanded beyond the Rochester area, with a store in Syracuse,[13] and again in 1977 with its first Buffalo store.[13] The first store outside New York opened in 1993 in Erie, Pennsylvania[13] and the expansion continued into New Jersey in 1999,[13] Virginia in 2004, and Maryland in 2005.[13][14] Wegmans, long planning to expand into Massachusetts,[15][16] opened a store in Northborough in 2011[17][18] and will open another in Burlington in 2013.[19] Wegmans is planning on opening a store at the Montgomery Mall in North Wales, Pennsylvania in 2013, the first store to be part of a shopping mall since the closing of the Midtown Plaza store in Rochester.[20] As a part of the company’s continued expansion efforts, Wegmans opened its fifth Maryland location in Columbia on June 17, 2012.[21] Its sixth Maryland location opened in Crofton on October 28, 2012, followed by a Germantown location on September 15, 2013.[22]
Operations[edit]
A modern Wegmans storefront circa 2010. This Wegmans is in Lanham (a Washington suburb) (referred to as the “Woodmore” store), the second Wegmans in Maryland
Exterior of a typical Wegmans, in the style common in the late 1990s; inAmherst, New York at the “Alberta Drive” location.
A Wegmans store in Manalapan, New Jersey
In 2009, Wegmans ranked number 29 on the Supermarket News list of the Top 75 North American Food Retailers based on sales volume,[23] up from number 32 on the 2007 Supermarket News list,[3] and 7th among privately held U.S. supermarkets.[citation needed] In 2009 Stores Magazine showed it to be the 74th largest retailer in the United States with estimated revenues of $4.67 billion[24] As of 2006, it was the 66th largest privately held company, as determined byForbes.[25] On Forbes’s 2005 list, Wegmans ranked 54th.[26]
Most of Wegmans’ newer stores are of the “superstore” or “megamarket” type, with a large area, a variety of foods aimed at an upscale clientele, and in many stores, Market Café in-store dining areas. Wegmans used to own and operate Tastings, a restaurant at its Pittsford, New York, store that offered patrons three distinct eating areas, making the Pittsford Wegmans its largest.[citation needed] Tastings has closed, replaced with The Food Bar, a ‘seafood shack’-styled restaurant in the same space. Next Door Bar and Grill, a stand-alone restaurant operated by Wegmans, opened across the street from the Pittsford store.
In January 2007, Wegmans announced two business ventures: (1) opening a 19,000 sq ft (1,800 m2) liquor store in Pittsford (adding to its two existing wine centers, in Virginia and New Jersey); and (2) the creation of a $28 million “Culinary Innovation Center” (in Chili, New York), a corporate research and development facility that will house a new central kitchen (replacing some of the operations at its meat center).[27] The liquor store opened in April 2008 as Century Pittsford Wines. It is not owned by the company, but independently owned by Nicole Wegman due to New York liquor laws. The store is 45,000 sq ft (4,200 m2)[28][29]
In November 2010, Walgreens filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Wegmans, claiming the “W” in the Wegman’s logo is too similar to Walgreens’.[30] The lawsuit was settled in April 2011, with Wegmans agreeing to discontinue use of its “W” logo by June 2012, although the supermarket retains the right to use the “Wegmans” name in script.[31] According to Jo Natale, Wegmans director of media relations, “The cost of making relatively minor changes to a limited number of products was much less than the cost of litigating this case to the end.”[32]
Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden Centers[edit]
Wegmans was the parent company of Chase-Pitkin, a regional home improvement retailer. On October 4, 2005, Wegmans announced that it would close all Chase-Pitkin stores by early 2006[33] and focus on its supermarket operations. The decision to exit the home improvement business was reportedly due to the increasing dominance of national chains such as Lowe’s and The Home Depot.[33] Chase-Pitkin stores closed individually at various points throughout March 2006.
Tobacco products[edit]
In January 2008, Wegmans announced that it would no longer sell tobacco products[34] and would offer smoking cessation programs to all employees.[35] The decision drew praise from the American Lung Association of New York State, who presented Wegmans with the “Lung Champion Award”.[35]
Wegmans brand[edit]
Wegmans began branding its products in 1979, offering basic commodities with a lower price than the national brands. The “Wegmans” brand has gradually expanded. In 1992, it began a line of health products, “Food You Feel Good About.” The next sub-brand to be launched was “Italian Classics.” In 1995, Wegmans introduced its imported pastas, canned tomatoes, and olive oils. Many of the products are from Italy. In 2002, Wegmans launched a line of organic products. Wegmans “six dollar meals” are now one of its most popular items in the prepared foods section.
The Wegmans brand has been used extensively in the American sitcom The Office; the program is set in the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which does, in fact, have a Wegmans store, despite being filmed in suburban Los Angeles.[36][37] It also appears on QVC, the shopping channel.
