On the fast track
Publix was founded by George W. Jenkins in 1930 in Winter Haven, Fla., and has grown from humble beginnings into a Fortune 500 company with more than 700 stores, making it one of the fastest growing employee-owned companies in the United States. The company is the largest employee-owned supermarket chain in the United States, and one of the 10 largest-volume supermarket chains nationwide with retail sales of $16.8 billion in 2003. In February 2004, the American Customer Satisfaction Index named Publix to its "top companies for customer satisfaction"list for the 10th year in a row. The privately held company still keeps executive positions in the family these days. George's nephew, with Charlie Jenkins Jr., became the CEO of the company in 2001; George's son Howard, serves as chairman of the company.
Mr. George's dream
"Mr. George,"as Jenkins was affectionately known by employees, established profit-sharing and employee ownership early on in the company, setting a high standard for employee relations. In 1935, a second store opened in Winter Haven, and Mr. George traveled the country to learn about the grocery business and grow Publix. Five years later, Mr. George mortgaged an orange grove to put the down payment on his dream store -- Florida's first supermarket, built of marble, glass and stucco, featuring up-to-date innovations like frozen food cases and electric-eye doors. During World War II, growth in the Publix chain was slow. Once peace was reached, however, Mr. George focused on expansion, building the chain to 24 stores by 1951, and earning $1 million in profit five years later. By the end of the 1960s, following a building spree, Publix had 150 stores in Florida. Mr. George added distribution and storage facilities, as well as a bakery plant and a deli, and grossed nearly $2 billion by 1978, with profits of $32 million. Throughout the 1980s, Publix remained at the forefront of technology, introducing check-out scanning and ATMs into stores, in addition to pharmacies. Publix crossed state boundaries in 1991, opening its first non-Florida store in Savannah, Ga., followed by stores in South Carolina, Alabama and, more recently, Tennessee. While the company continues to expand beyond Florida, its home state remains its most heavily populated area of operations: As of September 2004, 610 of the company's 824 locations were in the Sunshine State.
George Jenkins passed away in 1996, leaving behind a thriving company. Publix has expanded in recent years from its supermarket setting to include Meal Solutions Centers designed to show customers how to prepare healthy meals, Publix Pix, a series of gasoline-convenience stores, and Publix Liquors stores.
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