  |
Your Work Makes your
Employers Some of the Most
Successful in the Industry
|
You've heard of the Fortune 500? These companies are in the Fortune 50 — and this makes them some of the most successful not only in the industry, but in the country. As we go into bargaining in ‘08, it's important to remember how valuable you are to your employers. You're in the stores everyday, working hard—at the check-out counter, in the produce department, at the deli counter, in the meat department, in the stockroom. The contributions that you make to your industry have been and are immense. Your individual skills, hard work, positive attitudes, and great customer service have all helped to make your companies successful. |
 |
Take a look at the sales and profits that you generated for your stores
in 2006:
All of these companies have leading market shares in many of the key markets up for contract negotiation:  Kroger has a #1 market share in Southern California, Puget Sound, Cincinnati, Oregon, Memphis, and Indianapolis, and a #2 market share in Dallas and Houston. Safeway has a #1 market share in Northern California and Alaska, and a #2 market share in Southern California, Puget Sound, and Oregon. Supervalu has a very strong #1 position in Minneapolis-St. Paul, with almost 50% market share. They are also #2 in St. Louis and #3 in the major Southern California market. Ahold has a commanding #1 market share across the entire New England region, and in all the major New England markets: Boston; Providence, RI; Bridgeport, CT; and Hartford, CT.Safeway CEO Steve Burd says he agrees that your contributions are important. He says he values grocery workers, and that he needs their customer service skills to build the company. But as Morningstar analyst Mark Hugh Sam has said of Burd: "He has built an antagonistic relationship with the very same people who he is going to need to increase his stores' service component to remain competitive." What's the real story? Does Steve Burd value your contributions, or doesn't he? You know that your companies have become so successful because of workers like you. The CEOs of your companies may take credit in the annual shareholders' report, but they wouldn't generate a dime in sales without you. Don't let Steve Burd and other CEOs devalue your contributions. You are your companies' best assets. * This is an estimate of what the operating profits of Supervalu would have been in the last year, prior to the merger. It does not necessarily provide any indication of what the profits of the combined company will be.The estimate is made using the simplifying assumption that Albertson’s profits were equally distributed among their stores. Based on analyst reports, we know that this is not the case. Supervalu acquired the best-performing Albertsons assets, and hence, the average operating profits of these stores are likely to be higher.In particular, 695 of the original Albertsons stores, which were acquired by CVS, were stand-alone drugstores, which are likely to have a different level of operating profits than the supermarkets. This estimate does not take into account the savings from combining the supply chain and logistics of Albertsons and Supervalu.
|
