Shop Talk: Q&A with Bill Congdon
NAME and TITLE: Bill Congdon;Vice President/Division Manager New England for Wegmans Food Markets Inc.
HOMETOWN: Rochester, N.Y.
RESIDENCE: Hopkinton
EDUCATION: Associate's degree in business from SUNY-Canton
After months of planning, Wegmans will open its first store in Massachusetts this coming Sunday, Oct. 16, in Northborough. The company’s point man in New England, Bill Congdon, talks about the milestone for one of the nation’s largest private companies, one that has consistently ranked highly among Fortune magazine’s annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.
Why did the company target Central Massachusetts for its first store in the state?
Central Massachusetts is a great area for us. It is a very good income area. We were able to get the land that we needed. It fits with our distribution system and it just kind of made sense as (part of) our future growth. Also, our chairman (Danny Wegman) went to school at Harvard, so it’s kind of his old neighborhood.
We have a site in Westwood (where the company is planning to add a store). We also have a site in Burlington, and we are continuing to look for additional sites. So we’re kind of understanding the geography of this area.
Speaking of competition, there are a lot of grocery store retailers in this area, specifically within a 5-mile radius of the Northborough site. Can they all exist together, in your view? Will the population base of today and tomorrow provide enough business for them all?
I think so. I think the area here is pretty well able to handle the amount of grocery stores here. Plus, Wegmans is a little unique; it has a little bit of a unique model. We draw people from quite a distance away. People in other markets that we’ve expanded to — in Virginia and Maryland — will drive 20 to 30 miles to come and visit our stores.
What is it about Wegmans that makes it so unique?
(Wegmans offers) help with meal planning: We have a (feature) in our store where you can come in, and if you want to, buy all the ingredients and put a great meal together. Our advertising is what’s called Menu magazine. We send this out five times a year. We send it free to our top customers, and it can be purchased in the store by anyone else. It puts together a tremendous amount of seasonal menus. All the products for these are available in the store. And we have people ready to help you do all this.
If you’re tired after working the day, you can come in and get the stuff already prepared for you. You just have to warm it up in your microwave. Or you can actually sit in our store and enjoy the food that’s available to you. So it makes it a different and unique shopping experience.
Some companies are gravitating toward a model of trying to develop their talent for roles they may very well be interested in playing down the road, but it’s not a widespread practice. Tell me what Wegmans does.
Since we’ve grown as a company, we’ve put many formal programs around (professional development), so we do get many young people who are just out of high school or in college who will come to work for us. We have a scholarship program ($5 million given out annually).
Once the young people get involved in our company, not only is it fun for our customers but it’s fun for our employees. We’ll teach them anything. For example, our meat manager for the Northborough site: Part of his training was to go out to Montana and work with some of the beef growers we work with out there. He experienced it firsthand. We do that a lot. We believe that we can teach good people who have good personalities what they need to know about products and help them promote that to our customers.
Tell me about your role. What are your chief duties as Wegmans’ vice president and division manager in New England?
Near the first of the year, once the Northborough store is opened, I’ll be getting to work on store No. 2 and store No. 3 as we continue to grow out here. My goal is to help the store managers and the store managers’ teams. I help develop future leaders. As we grow, I try to get into each store two or three times a week because we need to identify who’s going to be our future leaders; who’s going to help us open up store No. 2, No. 3, store No. 4?
Finally, are you ready for opening day?
Yes I think we're ready. I think the building looks good. Were just trying to put the final touches on and get ready to go.
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