The Shelby Report congratulates
David Smith and AWG on his induction into the Industry
ALL of
AME
Hall of Fame inductee reflects on storied 48-year career in grocery Smith has guided Associated Wholesale Grocers since August 2015 by Treva Bennett / senior content creator “It’s been a good ride.” Reflecting on his 48-year career in the grocery industry and upcoming retirement, David Smith, president and CEO of Kansas City-based Associated Wholesale Grocers, said it will be the people he will miss the most – co-workers, AWG member retailers and vendors. Shelby Publishing is inducting Smith into its Food Industry Hall of Fame, and he recently reflected on his career and the bright future he sees for AWG as new leadership prepares to take the reins. Smith said August marked 48 years since he earned his first paycheck in the grocery business. The Tennessee native started out in lower-level jobs and worked his way up to running retail stores. In 1986, he sold his company. “At that point, I was kind of looking around. I did a couple of short stints helping out some other retailers. By the end of the year, I started to work for a wholesaler called Malone & Hyde.” Malone & Hyde was the wholesaler that had supplied Smith’s business. That wholesaler later was acquired by Fleming Co. While at Fleming, Smith said he worked a variety of jobs before finding his niche in retail development. He helped retailers with building, buying and remodeling stores. He later worked in sales for a time before being named to head the Nashville division in the late 1990s. A turning point in his career came on April 1, 2003, when Fleming filed bankruptcy.
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Darkest of days Smith said from the day that Fleming filed for bankruptcy until August 2003, those were “the darkest days for me in my career.” He was in charge of the Nashville division but had no answers for employees or retailers who were looking to him for guidance. “It was a difficult, difficult time. I made my mind up early that my No. 1 role was to help everybody every way that I could. Some things were unorthodox in a lot of ways. We made a lot of arrangements for competing wholesalers to be able to get groceries to our stores. I wrote many reference letters for employees that I really needed. They felt compelled that they needed to go on and find something because they just couldn’t stand the wait. It was like a dagger in the heart to see them go, but I had to do right by them. Those were the darkest of days.” Also at that time, the U.S. was “still reeling from the aftermath of 9/11, and the country was kind of shell shocked. We had started the Gulf War. A lot of things were uncertain.” Smith said he recalls going outside each week with other employees in the administrative office to gather around the flagpole. There, they would talk about whatever was on their mind, share their worries and then have prayer. “I think that the experience of that, and going through such a protracted battle, helped me appreciate people. It helped me also to have a disdain for greed. It was nothing but greed that had bankrupted our company.”
Also Kansas City, Kansas-based Associated Wholesale Grocers reported record results at its annual shareholders meeting in March. While President and CEO David Smith prepares to retire at the end of the year, to be succeeded by President-elect Dan Funk, the co-operative wholesaler is looking to continue its growth. The Shelby Report takes a more in-depth look at many of the recent initiatives and what they will mean for AWG going forward: • Creating the Upper Midwest division (page 42) • Opening an all-in-one distribution facility in Mississippi (page 33) • Continuing on its Convergence path (page 35) According to Smith, the company had done whatever it could to make itself look successful in order to spike shareholder interest and drive stock value. “I don’t have very much of an appetite for that and will never have an appetite for that. I believe in transparency, and I believe in honest dealings. I believe in leading the old-fashioned way and not trying to use smoke and mirrors and illusionary tactics to try to find favor from shareholders.” That period was a critical time for him and, as difficult as it was, he learned from the experience. “I learned a lot about what not to do. The people and the impact and the toll that it had on people, in the way that it caused them to worry, I vowed to never, ever put people through that. I’ve tried to always be careful, never to hire more than we need, never to overextend ourselves to where we would have to go through and have broad cutbacks and, as a company, to really place value on the Please see page 2
10/6/23 12:27 PM