Kroger's head of Texas operations weighs in on Houston competition
Bill Breetz, Kroger's Southwest Division president, said the company plans to spend… more
The grocery wars are real in Houston. With the top three heavyweights — Wal-Mart, H-E-B and Kroger — duking it out with specialty concepts Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Sprouts and Aldi, it's a very crowded field.
I sat down with Bill Breetz, Kroger's Southwest Division president, to hear his take on what Kroger is doing to separate itself from the pack.."Business is very good," Breetz told me. "As
you know, it’s a very competitive market, one of the most competitive
markets in the United States. Everybody’s here. The good news is the
local economy is very strong and over the last couple of years, there's
been a tremendous amount of job growth.".
And along with a growing population comes
big-time grocery expansion. Kroger's adding five new stores in the
Houston area in 2015 — in Katy, Huntsville, Cypress, Clute and Baytown —
at a cost of $162 million. The company will add seven more in 2016.
There will also be more than 30 remodels of existing stores and 13 new
fuel centers in the next two years.
"We’ve got a very aggressive plan," Breetz
said. "We’re going to spend north of $500 million in just the next three
years. That’s a significant investment — that’s unheard of in other
markets, those kind of numbers."
The company knows that H-E-B and Wal-Mart have extensive growth plans of their own, and each is vying for space along the Grand Parkway as the third loop starts shaping up.
"My opinion on competitors is basically they
make you better," Breetz said. "We’ve been here longer than everybody
else, so we feel like we’re the hometown store, even though others say
they’re hometown, mainly because I think they’re from the state."
Kroger entered the Houston market in 1955 upon acquiring Henke & Pillot..
"We’ve been here for 60 years in Houston now. So we feel we’re Texan. We feel we’re home," Breetz said.
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