Ian McLeod, wearing the company’s T-shirt promoting donations to Wounded Warrior Project, arrived midmorning at the Lakewood Winn-Dixie to thank customers for shopping there on the Fourth of July.
Some shoppers made a beeline to him when they realized who he was, with one woman saying she wanted to meet him.
He likes to thank customers for their business. He wants to make it better for them.
On the job just four months, McLeod wants to improve customer service, the shopping experience and the products of the chains he now leads. The former managing director of the Coles grocery chain in Australia said there weren’t any major surprises in taking the new job. But he did make some initial observations.
“I could see when I looked at the stores that probably over the years they could have done with a better level of investment than they’ve had for a while and that’s something we want to address,” he said.
McLeod also appreciated what he saw with the employees.
“The one thing that did impress me is the associates and their loyalty to the business, and so many associates have got so many years’ service here. They really want to see the organization continue to grow and succeed,” he said.
McLeod was hired in January and took the post March 2 as the new president and CEO of what was then Bi-Lo Holdings, the Jacksonville-based parent company of Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo and Harveys stores.
Bi-Lo Holdings was formed in 2012 with the merger of Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo. It changed its name in May to Southeastern Grocers LLC.
McLeod said the company has grown to 80,000 employees and almost 800 stores in eight Southeastern states.
When hired, he said he wanted to build on the chains’ reputation by better serving customers, attracting new shoppers through quality and value, and to strengthen the company’s competitive position within the industry. The company says on segrocers.com it is the fifth-largest conventional supermarket in the U.S. and the second-largest in the Southeast based on store count.
McLeod said the chains, in business for decades, hold a strong brand franchise with costumers. Winn-Dixie’s origin dates to 1925, and the Winn-Dixie banner was created in 1955. Harvey’s took root in 1924, while Bi-Lo traces its start to 1961 and its name to 1963.
Some of the stores have “lost their way” in the last few years in their customer-service approach, he said.
“I think we’ve got the opportunity to take all that goodwill with our customers and our associates and start to do better for them, and that’s really what we are aiming to do,” he said.
What to expect
McLeod talked about several changes.
“We are going to try to improve our efficiency overall as a business, and then look at that efficiency to invest more in service and become more competitive in terms of our pricing as well,” he said.
He said the company would also work with its supply chain to build better relationships with vendors to bring better quality products into the stores.
For example, employees will be further trained. “When customers are in the store, they’re looking for help, support and assistance,” he said. “We want to make sure we recognize and value our customers and we have our associates trained to help them.”
McLeod said store remodeling will take place over time.
“(For) a number of our stores, it’s (been) a few years since they’ve been remodeled. I think it’s time that you can probably freshen a few of them up,” he said.
The company is looking at the potential remodels “and what the store might look and feel like, and that will come with time,” he said, indicating the company will study how to update the stores for their markets.
In recent years, the company has expanded through acquisitions. In 2013, Bi-Lo Holdings agreed to buy 165 stores from Delhaize Group, comprising the Sweetbay, Reid’s and Harveys brands. The sale was completed in 2014 after the Federal Trade Commission approved the deal with some divestitures.
The Sweetbay locations were converted to Winn-Dixie, Reid’s stores became Bi-Lo and Harveys retained the name.
McLeod said the business has grown to nearly 800 stores over the last year to 18 months.
While not immediately, the company is looking at the opportunity to open new stores.
“The immediate focus for us is going to be improving the performance of our existing base before we start branching into brand new ones,” he said.
Asked whether the company was considering new markets, McLeod said the company continues to focus on the Southeast. It operates in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
“We’re in eight states at the moment and we want to make sure we do the best we can for our customers in those particular markets,” McLeod said. “We see ourselves as a Southeastern grocer, which is actually why we changed the name to Southeastern Grocers as a parent company.”
There also is no move toward converting the stores to one common name. McLeod said the banners hold tradition and history in the markets they serve and operate there well.
“At this stage it’s not a priority to look at merging brand names, but we can focus on the strategy and making sure that each of the brands that we carry operates very effectively in those markets,” he said.
Bi-Lo filed for an initial public offering for up to $500 million in September 2013 under the name Southeastern Grocers Inc. but withdrew the offering in August 2014 and returned to referring to itself as Bi-Lo Holdings until the name change this year.
Asked whether the company might file again for an initial public offering, McLeod didn’t discount the possibility.
“I think the important thing for us now is to make sure that we continue to improve the business,” he said. “And if we continue to grow and develop the business, then who knows what might happen in the future?”
As a private company, owned by funds managed by Dallas-based Lone Star Funds, Southeastern Grocers does not have to publicly report its financial information.
McLeod said Saturday he could not provide confidential information about sales or the company’s performance.
Based on its IPO documents, Bi-Lo Holdings reported revenue of $7.7 billion in the first nine months of 2013. That was before the Delhaize deal.
Winn-Dixie is well known in Jacksonville for its long-time headquarters and the work of its founders, the Davis family. The company plans to remain based in Jacksonville, according to McLeod.
Bi-Lo was based in Greenville, S.C., when it announced the $560 million acquisition of Winn-Dixie.
McLeod said the headquarters in Jacksonville is supported by smaller units in the system. “You have to have the nerve center to plan and develop and evolve your programs going forward, so that’s obviously an important part of what we do in Jacksonville.”
Mayor Lenny Curry, who took office Wednesday, met with McLeod at the Saturday event and said when Bi-Lo merged with Winn-Dixie, he called Florida Gov. Rick Scott to make sure the headquarters remained in Florida. Curry was then chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
He said it was important that Jacksonville retained the corporate headquarters, referring to Winn-Dixie’s “long, rich history” in the city.
Applying international experience in the U.S.
McLeod, a native of Scotland, has more than 30 years of experience in retailing and supermarkets.
Before coming to Jacksonville, he was group commercial director for Wesfarmers Limited, which bought Coles supermarkets in 2007. From 2008 to July 2014, McLeod ran more than 2,200 Coles food, liquor and convenience stores, which employed 100,000 people across Australia.
In announcing his appointment, Bi-Lo Holdings said McLeod led a major turnaround at Coles and doubled profits over six years.
Before that, he was CEO at Halfords Group Plc, a British retail chain specializing in car parts, cycling and outdoor leisure goods.
McLeod brings that experience to the U.S.
“To me coming into the country, what’s really important is that I don’t prejudge anything,” he said, explaining he doesn’t assume what worked in a company overseas would necessarily work here.
McLeod said another observation is the diverse needs among the markets the stores serve.
He said he understands the importance of listening to team members about operating and responding to customers more effectively.
“I have to listen to all of that before we actually step forward,” he said.
As he does, he is visiting the stores, as he did Saturday. Southeastern Grocers pledged to donate the profits generated July 4 at Bi-Lo, Harveys and Winn-Dixie stores to support Jacksonville-based Wounded Warrior Project’s Independence Program.
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