Ron Dennis, One Of The Best, Hangs 'Em Up (For Now) 

March 2010
by Jeff Metzger

Fifty-two years. That’s not only a career, it’s a lifetime. In 1958, a skinny (but not yet bald) 14 year old from Florida first enlisted in the business at an A&P store in Miami. He swept floors, collected carts and performed many of the menial duties that are part of a rookie’s daily agenda.

Ron Dennis has come a long ways since then, and as he retires as president of Farm Fresh Supermarkets on March 5, he leaves a legacy as one of the finest merchants of our generation.
I didn’t know Ron back in his days at Albertsons, where he enjoyed a long and successful tenure. I first met him in late 1997 through John Stokely, then CEO of Richfood, who hired Ron to become president of its corporately owned Tidewater unit.

Once one of the top regional chains in the country under the stewardships of Dave Furman and the late, great Gene Walters, Farm Fresh had fallen asunder in the early and mid-1990s, severely damaged by the misguided leadership of Mike Julian and Ron Johnston. By the time Ron Dennis came aboard the business was broken on so many levels that many in the trade openly wondered if it could ever be repaired.

Without a lot of capital to work with initially, and with a staff that needed to be re-energized and partially rebuilt, the challenges were daunting. It was in the next 18 months that we began to recognize the real talent of Ron Dennis.

A combination of pure grit, deep knowledge of the fundamentals of food retailing and strong people skills helped Farm Fresh find its game again in the ultra-competitive Tidewater market where Wal-Mart’s SuperCenters have long been a factor, and the additional presence of six commissaries make the competitive market landscape even more challenging.

By the time Supervalu acquired Richfood (and Farm Fresh) in 2000, the Virginia Beach based retailer was well on its way. Supervalu’s ownership provided Farm Fresh with a cap-ex pipeline to build new stores and replace older ones. It was a simple philosophy back in those days at Supervalu: perform and ye shall be rewarded.

And did Farm Fresh perform. The retailer achieved comparable store sales increases that approached or sometimes exceeded double digits for many years over the past decade. While the numbers were always important to Ron, he also sought a more pragmatic goal: build stores that were truly supermarkets - where all departments were given attention and ensuring that the consumer’s needs came first.

One might argue that Farm Fresh’s perishables were always the strength of the retailer’s operation, but the truth be told, HBC/GM, center store and even the company’s wine departments were given a lot of TLC. Shopping at a Farm Fresh store provided a consumer with a complete experience: clean, well-stocked stores that were competitively priced and attended to by courteous associates. The stores also had enough sizzle to make the shopping experience a positive treasure hunt of sorts.
And while not every at bat that Ron had produced a hit - the company’s major plans to expand
into Northeastern North Carolina never really materialized in a big way - Ron was quick to cut his losses and move on to a new endeavor.

When I chatted with Ron in earlier this month about his retirement and asked him if his decision was brought on by the tremendous change at Supervalu, he took the high road and refused to criticize anyone.

He noted that the “timing” was right to step down and he didn’t want a lot of fanfare about it. You wouldn’t expect anything different from Ron.

But it seems so obvious that all the constraints and controls that Supervalu has imposed on its people over the past few years became a pill that creative, independent personalities like Ron Dennis found difficult to swallow. For somebody nearly 66 years old, who is truly old school and been allowed to lead his own band for so long, the new “one size fits many” business model that Supervalu is constructing would be a difficult style to adjust to.

When I asked Ron if his days in food retailing were indeed over, he said, “We’ll see,” while also noting that believes he’s still got some gas in his tank.

My bet is that we’ll see Ron back in the trenches before too long. Once a merchant, always a merchant.