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H-E-B history
H-E-B company history timeline
The story of H-E-B began in 1905 in a small, family-owned store in Kerrville in the Texas Hill Country.
By 1908 the Butt store had established itself within the local community as "dealers in staples, fancy groceries and fresh meats." The boys had even been able to buy a horse and wagon to make deliveries.
At the age of 22, in 1917, Howard was still working in the grocery store.
In 1919, Howard Edward Butt, Florence's youngest son, took over the store upon his return from World War I. Shortly after becoming owner of his mother's small store, Howard tried four expansions into Central Texas, including one in Junction, all of which failed.
1921: Howard E. Butt, son of Florence, begins experimenting with a cash-and-carry format.
In fact, Butt decided in 1924 that it was time to expand.
Butt opened his first Piggly-Wiggly in Del Rio in 1926.
Finally, in 1927, Howard launched a successful second store in Del Rio, Texas, followed by the purchase of three grocery stores in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
By 1931 Butt Grocery was operating a total of 24 stores, and plans were being made for new outlets.
Butt suffered a major setback in 1933, when a hurricane swept from the coast into the Rio Grande Valley and damaged many of Butt's stores and warehouses.
In 1934, when he was still in his 30s, Butt formed the H.E. Butt Foundation, a charitable organization created to aid the community.
H.E. Butt began to integrate vertically when it opened its own bakery and purchased a canning company in 1936.
1936: Vertical integration begins via new bakery and canning facility; company generates sales of $2 million.
Meantime, headquarters were moved again in 1938, this time to Corpus Christi.
In 1938, moreover, Butt expanded into the 75,000-person Austin market, the largest metropolitan area that it had entered.
Meantime, headquarters were moved again in 1940, this time to Corpus Christi.
1940 H‑E‑B opens its first air‑conditioned stores and begins stocking frozen foods.
1949: The chain's first truly large grocery store, with 22,500 square feet, opens in Corpus Christi.
In 1950 the company opened a large store in Waco--the company's 53rd outlet--that featured an unheard of 12 checkout stands, two parking lots, and a self-service meat counter.
To increase sales at existing stores, it began operating the Texas Gold Stamp Company as a subsidiary in 1955; the promotion gave customers stamps for each purchase, which they could then exchange for household items.
After Howard, Jr., took over management of the H.E. Butt Foundation, Charles Butt, a Wharton graduate, assumed the helm as president in 1971, a year in which sales of $250 million were recorded.
The new president in 1976 abandoned the firm's long-outdated policies that barred the sale of alcohol and kept the chain's stores closed on Sunday.
1976 The H‑E‑B Milk Plant opens in San Antonio, becoming the largest milk plant in Texas.
Such initiatives helped push sales over the $1 billion mark by 1980.
1981: First superstore, with 56,000 square feet, is opened in Austin.
1985: Headquarters shift to San Antonio.
Most notably, H-E-B opened its first H-E-B Video Central/H-E-B Video Superstore outlet in 1987 to capitalize on the booming home video industry; within a few years, H-E-B would tag more than 20 additional video stores onto that division.
Debuting in San Antonio in 1991--a year in which the company reached $3 billion in sales--was a much larger format, the H-E-B Marketplace, which spanned 93,000 square feet and included restaurants and a coffee shop/ice creamery.
H-E-B quickly added to the chain and by 1991 was working to build 22 more Pantry stores in Houston within a year.
Also in 1991, H.E. Butt, Sr., died.
In 1993 H-E-B sold its 33-unit video store chain to Hollywood Entertainment.
The company opened the first Central Market in Austin in 1994.
The History of H. E. Butt Grocery Company, San Antonio: H. E. Butt Grocery Company, 1994.
Sales surpassed $5 billion in 1995, when the company celebrated its 90th anniversary.
1996: First expansion outside of Texas occurs with the opening of a Pantry store in Louisiana; James F. Clingman becomes the first non-family member named president.
"Charles Butt Fulfills Dream," San Antonio Express-News, February 21, 1997.
H-E-B opened its first Mexican store in 1997 in Monterrey.
1997 H‑E‑B expands its business across the border into Mexico with a new store in Monterrey.
1998: Sales reach $7 billion.
H-E-B eventually settled the suit out of court with Centeno in 1998 for $6.5 million and with Handy Andy for an undisclosed settlement amount.
Vaughan, Vicki, "H-E-B to Go Further South," San Antonio Express-News, September 10, 1999.
Meanwhile, back home, H-E-B opened a second Central Market in Austin in 1999.
2000 H‑E‑B introduces the H‑E‑Buddy mascot, delighting children across Texas.
In Houston, the company was the number four chain, with 10.1 percent of a $5.4 billion market. Thus, the company began looking both north and south for expansion and began laying the groundwork for a move into the $4.8 billion Dallas/Fort Worth market, with tentative plans to open its first stores there in 2000.
LaHood, Lila, "Tradition of Success: After Nearly a Century in Business, H. E. Butt Grocery Enters the Metroplex Market," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 23, 2001.
Revenues for 2001 were just short of $9 billion.
2001 H‑E‑B enters the Houston market in a Texas‑sized way with large‑format stores; the first one opens at Fountainview and Westheimer.
2002 H‑E‑B hosts the first Excellence in Education Awards celebration in San Antonio.
2002 H‑E‑B opens its state‑of‑the‑art Quality Assurance Laboratory, giving the company technologically advanced scientific capabilities.
2003 H‑E‑B opened a new $4 million, 14,000‑square‑foot Transportation Terminal in Weslaco.
In 2004, the company launched three (in Austin, Corpus Christi, and Waco) H-E-B Plus! stores with an expanded focus on non-food categories, such as entertainment and other general merchandise.
Seeking an additional avenue for boosting sales, H-E-B in 2004 unveiled another new format, H-E-B Plus.
2004 H‑E‑B introduces its new H‑E‑B plus! concept store in San Juan, Texas.
2007 H‑E‑B opens a warehouse in Weslaco.
H-E-B's Alon Market opened on October 17, 2008 in San Antonio.
2008 H‑E‑B is one of the largest food chains in the United States, with annual sales of more than $15 billion operating 307 stores in Texas and Northern Mexico.
2008 Mi Tienda is named the Best Hispanic Supermarket and Houston Central Market is named the Best Grocery Store by the Houston Press.
2009 H‑E‑B introduces its own line of H‑E‑B Corn Chips in Original, Chili Cheese, and Chipotle BBQ flavors.
In 2010, the company announced plans to build 19 new stores in Texas.
As of late 2010, its operations serve approximately "55-plus" percent of the Texas market, according to Progressive Grocer, with primary Texas markets including the Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin, Laredo and Houston metro areas.
In 2010, H-E-B offered consumers the opportunity to vote on possible designs for new stores as they expand into new communities.
In Mexico, H-E-B had plans to open a handful of additional stores through about 2010.
2010 H‑E‑B celebrates its 105 years of making a difference in the lives of Texans.
Another Mi Tienda opened in north Houston in 2011; it is twice the size of the original location, and has 97,000 square feet (9,000 m ) of space.
H-E-B crossed the $1 billion annual sales mark in Mexico in 2012.
In July 2015, the Market concept was expanded as a new Spring Creek Market was opened in southern Montgomery County in Spring, Texas on Rayford Road.
The Austin Business Journal rated H-E-B as the largest private-sector employer in the region in 2017.
H-E-B acquired Favor Delivery as a wholly owned subsidiary in February 2018.
As of 2019, the company has a total revenue surpassing US$31.2 billion.
In 2019 the company announced plans to build a technology center at its headquarters complex.
In 2019, H-E-B invested millions of dollars to replace cashier stations with self-checkout kiosks or smartphone apps, at the same time that many other supermarkets (such as Walmart, Target, etc.) were shifting towards more self-checkout lanes, app usage, and displacing cashiers.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, H-E-B announced in March 2021 that customers would no longer be required to wear masks while in H-E-B stores.
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H-E-B competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wegmans Food Markets | 1916 | $10.8B | 50,002 | 500 |
| Safeway | 1915 | $36.3B | 250,001 | 37 |
| The Fresh Market | 1982 | $1.8B | 13,000 | - |
| Hannaford Supermarkets | 1883 | $4.2B | 25,000 | 959 |
| Publix | 1930 | $48.4B | 225,000 | 442 |
| Whole Foods Market | 1978 | $16.0B | 91,000 | 1,750 |
| Winn-Dixie | 1925 | $5.1B | 41,000 | - |
| Food Lion | 1957 | $20.0B | 88,001 | 1 |
| Harris Teeter | 1960 | $4.5B | 35,000 | 1,067 |
| Hy-Vee | 1930 | $12.0B | 88,000 | 940 |
H-E-B history FAQs
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H-E-B may also be known as or be related to H E B LLC, H-E-B, H-E-B Grocery Company LP, HEB Construction, HEB Grocery Company LP and Heb.