Rays sticks with success formula for 60 years

LIMA — Treat customers and employees with integrity. Innovate. Give back to the community.

That's been the formula for 60 years at Chief Super Market Inc., the family-owned chain of 12 grocery stores that includes four Rays Supermarkets in Lima.

The winning formula gained national attention recently when the Defiance-based company's president and chief executive officer, Stephanie Skylar of Lima, was named the Women Grocers of America's 2011 Woman Grocer of the Year. The award salutes “an industry woman whose leadership has contributed to the success of her company” and “the overall well-being of the grocery industry” and who “must be a community-focused citizen committed to serving the needs of her neighbors, associates and customers through involvement in community and civic affairs.”

“I don't generally view the world through a gender lens, but I understand the critical role women business leaders play as role models for younger generations,” Skylar said after accepting the award at the National Grocers Association's annual convention in Las Vegas. “I want to instill in young women the confidence to know they can achieve anything they set out to do.”

Chief operates 12 stores under the Chief and Rays banners in nine communities in northwest and west central Ohio. The company started in 1951 when brothers Ted and Karl Hench, owners of Hench's Meat Market, joined forces with John Nolan Jr., proprietor of Nolan's Grocery, to open a grocery store in Defiance. They chose the name Chief because they wanted their modern new supermarket to be a community leader that stood for honesty, integrity and fairness.

“Shopping at Chief meant visiting a modern, clean store with the highest quality meat and produce,” Skylar said. “A trip to Chief was a guarantee you would be well cared for. The Chief way of doing business continues today.”

Philanthropic efforts take on added prominence in times of economic hardship. To combat hunger, Chief established its Good Neighbor program to coordinate participation from vendors, suppliers, community leaders and two regional food banks to help supply more than 250 food pantries in the company's service area. In the past two years, the program has raised more than $70,000 and provided meals for thousands of hungry families.

Chief and Rays stores will sponsor the third annual Good Neighbor Day on April 5, donating a portion of sales that day to local food pantries and encouraging customers to make cash or nonperishable food donations to help needy families. Good Neighbor Day started in 2009 after the recession forced many families to struggle to put food on the table.

Other community outreach initiatives include Rays' Good Neighbor community cash program, where not-for-profit organizations throughout Lima collect register receipts and turn them in for a corporate contribution, and a grant program that rewards community outreach projects that focus on youth.

Rays has sponsored fundraising days for other large organizations that help with cancer and diabetes awareness.

“It's important and satisfying to give your heart and soul to a community. In difficult times, building community makes a difference,” Skylar said. “In difficult times, we invest in our company and our people, and they invest in building community.”

One such investment is known as Chief University, a comprehensive, hands-on associate training program. Launched in 2009, the university helps capture employees' talents and teach them the skills they need to tackle the new jobs local retailing will demand. The chain employs about 1,000 associates. Of those, more than 300 work in Lima's four Rays stores.

Meanwhile, in-store renovations and innovations are ongoing. The company strives to stay ahead of the curve in the realms of workforce, product and technology innovation, Skylar said, and yet something as basic as carryout service remains at the core of the Chief/Rays formula.

“I am fascinated that grocery stores are one of the few places in our high tech world that aren't done better online,” Skylar said. “Shopping, education, even friendships — you can make the argument websites can handle this sort of thing better than going somewhere to do the same thing. But I love the experience of going to Rays — the experience of selecting my favorite produce, interacting with the associates, and the ritual of providing for my family and friends by selecting the best food I can.

“From my perspective as a steward of Chief, a real community forms around something that can't be done online. And that all comes down to people. And believing in people.”