Retailer of the Year/Food Industry Hall of Fame

Morris: Miller Has Been Key in Keeping the Albertsons Culture Alive

Susan Morris has been with the Albertsons organization for 33 years, starting as a clerk in the Denver division when she was in high school. In January 2018 she was named EVP and chief operations officer, overseeing the company’s supply chain, manufacturing and operations functions. She took on some of the duties of Wayne Denningham, who retired after more than 40 years with Albertsons. He had served as president and chief operating officer.

Morris briefly met Miller when she was in her early 20s. He was in a regional role with Albertsons, and though she was in “a much lower role at that time,” she already had learned of his reputation as someone who was well respected.

Morris went over to Supervalu with that company’s purchase of some Albertsons stores in 2006; she and her husband both were offered jobs. She was VP of customer satisfaction at that time.

But she decided to return to Albertsons LLC, as it was known at the time, in 2010. Part of the reason she decided to make the move back to Albertsons—even though LLC only had about 200 stores then—was that Supervalu was starting to centralize operations. The opposite was happening at Albertsons under the leadership of Bob Miller, Bob Butler and Denningham.

Denningham had been her store director in her early days as a clerk, and Butler had promoted her on more than one occasion.

“I had this opportunity to come over to this tiny little company, this Albertsons LLC—the non-core assets that ‘weren’t going to make it,’” she says.

Though she had to go backward from an SVP of sales and marketing role to a grocery sales manager role to get back to Albertsons, she knew it was the right thing to do, based in part on the company culture.

“Some of that starts back with Joe Albertson—he created our company—but probably no one has been more true to that culture than Bob Miller,” Morris says.

Sales are the first priority—there’s no company without them— but that’s closely followed by customers, employees and stores. “He works really hard to make sure we take care of people and do the right thing for people,” she says.

The first week Morris was at Albertsons LLC, she was able to finally spend some time with Miller at a dinner they both attended. Though she had met him, she didn’t really know him. All she knew was that people who had worked closely “just bubbled over when they talked about Bob. He’s not exactly a cuddly teddy bear kind of guy; he’s not exactly the guy that uses a thousand words to get his points across. He says very few things, but what he says he means it, and he’s a really good person. So getting to meet the legend and spend some time with him, instantly I was like, I get it. I get why people feel the way they feel about him. He’s not flowery, he’s not going to throw a bunch of extra time and energy at fluffy conversations—he’s just going to tell you what he thinks and he’s going to take care of business. He also does an amazing job of taking care of people.”

As a man of few words, Miller has a gift for listening and a heart for helping people, Morris says. She knows personally of situations where Miller has been “extremely generous to people that have nothing to do with furthering his career or our company; he’s just a good man who likes to take good care of people.”

Though Morris took a lower role when she rejoined Albertsons in 2010, by 2013, she was named Intermountain division president after a three-year stint in the company’s Southwest division, and subsequently was asked to lead the Denver division in 2015. Morris was named EVP-East Operations in April 2016 and was moved to lead West Region Operations in March 2017.

The year 2013 was big for Albertsons, when it bought back 877 stores from Supervalu.

“Bob was maybe more excited than all of us to become an Idahobased company once again and come back to the roots that really made us who we are today,” Morris says.

“Our culture may have started with Joe, but Bob’s the one’s that kept that alive all these years.”

Plated meal kits in hundreds of stores by year’s end

Albertsons purchased the meal kit service company Plated in September 2017.

The New York City-based company, which operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Albertsons, was purchased by Albertsons as a means for the grocer to keep up with its shoppers’ evolving lifestyles and food preferences.

“Today’s consumer is looking for a variety of personalized shopping alternatives, and this transaction is the latest example of Albertsons Cos. meeting our customers wherever and however they like to shop,” said Bob Miller, then chairman and CEO of Albertsons Cos. “With Plated, we’ve found a partner who shares our commitment to delicious, affordable food; superior technology and innovation; and world class customer service. Plated knows its customers better than anyone, and together we will accelerate our ability to serve them. We are excited to offer our customers more online options and fresh, quality ingredients along with distinctive recipes at their doorstep or through traditional shopping trips.”

Plated benefits from Albertsons Cos.’ resources and national reach, with more than 2,300 stores to scale its business and improve its customer experience with new offerings. Albertsons Cos. will enable Plated to expand beyond its existing subscription model by offering Plated meal kits at many store locations, across its digital channels and through a variety of distribution options “to make it easy to create delicious meals at home by providing the flexibility, convenience and access to high-quality, fresh ingredients coupled with chef-designed recipes that customers are looking for.”

Plated’s marketing and acquisition efforts also will benefit by gaining exposure to Albertsons Cos.’ 35 million customers per week.

In April 2018, the companies embarked on the next phase of their plan, debuting six meal kits in Albertsons stores that represented some of Plated customers’ favorites:

• Crunchy Chicken Milanese with Honey Mustard and Arugula;

• Roasted Chicken au Jus with Orzo and Peas;

• Beef Noodle Bowls with Dinosaur Kale and Mushrooms;

• Steak Frites with Creamy Shallot Sauce and Sautéed Spinach;

• Skillet Grandma Pie with ParmesanKale Salad; and

• Pine Nut–Crusted Salmon with Creamy Tomato Farro and Roasted Green Beans. By the end of 2018, Albertsons Cos. plans to stock Plated meal kits at select Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market and Haggen locations. The pilot started in 20 Safeway stores in Northern California and 20 Jewel-Osco stores in the Chicago area.

“We are excited to have Plated meal kits in our stores. Plated’s culinary expertise allows us to offer customers premiumquality, chef-designed recipes for amazing meals they can prepare at home,” said Pat Brown, group VP of merchandising and strategic initiatives for Albertsons Cos. “Plated is not just a meal kit, it’s a culinary experience. That’s what sets us apart. Our customers learn new techniques and can experiment with delicious and culturally diverse recipes.” years. It’s been an unimaginable job that they’ve done, and we couldn’t be prouder of them.

You’ve been in a remodeling a new store campaign for how long now?

We’d been remodeling our stores right along. But after we bought Safeway, we went in a lot of stores and did things that you wouldn’t call a remodel but upgrades. Number one, their “Lifestyle” stores were extremely dark, so we put lights in all of them. They’re much brighter stores now; we get lots of good customer comments.

We tried to put a service meat and fish case in so that we had a butcher to take care of customers. Like I said, we put cake cases in most of the Safeways and added a decorator. We upgraded the quality of the produce and the meat, and we did a lot of work so that we could cut fruit and vegetables in-store. We had to have the rooms in the back that we could do that in.

So, the first thing we did was spent a lot of money upgrading the Safeway stores, while we continued to remodel our stores. Then, after the first year, I would say, we started a major remodel

O Organics hits $1 billion-brand milestone

In January 2018, Albertsons’ Own Brands label, O Organics, became a $1 billion brand.

The grocer’s fourth billion-dollar brand, O Organics features more than 1,000 products for customers to choose from, all of which are USDA certified organic and carry the USDA certified organic seal.

“Everyone should have the opportunity to go organic—whether you are selectively choosing a few organic products or you have fully embraced eating organics,” said Geoff White, president of Albertsons Cos.’ Own Brands. “That’s why we offer such a wide assortment of O Organics products, from fresh fruits and vegetables to wholesome dairy and meats, cereals, snacks and more. We are honored that customers love our O Organics and have made it not only the top-selling organic brand in our stores, but also a $1 billion brand.”

O Organics are available exclusively at Albertsons Cos. stores. In the most recent year, O Organics added about 200 new products and grew sales more than 15 percent. In 2018, the company expects to introduce 500 or more new products under the O Organics line, from produce, dairy and meats, to deli, snacks and baby items.

“We are passionate about offering great-tasting and high-quality products to the neighborhoods we serve,” White said. “Introducing new and certified organic products for every eating occasion is a great example of how we are constantly delivering and staying ahead of consumer trends.”

The brand was launched in 2005 to make organic products available to more people at a value price. Albertsons Cos. manufactures a number of O Organics products, including yogurt, salsa, ice cream, milk, pasta sauce and sandwich bread.

Albertsons’ other billion-dollar brands are Signature Select, Signature Café and Lucerne. The company’s Own Brands are created and tested at the company’s California innovation hub, the Culinary Kitchen and Technical Center.