H. E. Butt Foundation history

H.E. Butt began to integrate vertically when it opened its own bakery and purchased a canning company in 1936.

In 1938, moreover, Butt expanded into the 75,000-person Austin market, the largest metropolitan area that it had entered.

1949: The chain's first truly large grocery store, with 22,500 square feet, opens in Corpus Christi.

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.

Laity Lodge hosted its first retreat in June, 1961, when a group of people met on the banks of the Frio River in a newly-constructed hall.

Mary Holdsworth Butt is appointed by Governor Allan Shivers to the governing board of Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools, which was supplanted in 1965 by the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

When Charles Butt took over the family business from his father in 1971, he wasn’t simply interested in growing H-E-B into one of the largest and most beloved Texas companies.

The new president in 1976 abandoned the firm's long-outdated policies that barred the sale of alcohol and kept the chain's stores closed on Sunday.

1981: First superstore, with 56,000 square feet, is opened in Austin.

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.

1991: 93,000-square-foot H-E-B Marketplace, including restaurants and a coffee shop, opens in San Antonio; company reaches $3 billion in sales.

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.

Sales surpassed $5 billion in 1995, when the company celebrated its 90th anniversary.

Meanwhile, back home, H-E-B opened a second Central Market in Austin in 1999.

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.

The Foundation continued to host Forum events regularly until 2011, challenging executives around the country—from PepsiCo to Goldman Sachs to Johnson and Johnson—to lead with a deeper commitment to serving God and creating a better society for everyone.