Kantar Consulting expects Hy-Vee to outperform the industry in the coming years, and senior analyst Elley Symmes provided some perspective on the reason for the forecast.
She explained that Kantar views West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee as a power regional player, a description she also applied to San Antonio, Texas-based H-E-B.
“They continue to invest in a business in a really effective way and really resonate with that local consumer group that they are serving,” Symmes said. “H-E-B and Hy-Vee have been outperforming that average supermarket industry player over the past five years and we continue to see it going forward.”
Hy-Vee had roughly $10 billion in sales in 2018, according to a ranking by Kantar of the top 50 U.S. retailers by 2018 sales. Kantar listed Hy-Vee’s compound annual growth rate as 5% for 2013-2018 and forecast a rate of 4% for 2018-2023.
Symmes noted Hy-Vee’s willingness to invest in new services as an example of the approach that has made the retailer successful.
“Hy-Vee was the first retailer in the U.S. in the grocery channel to offer online grocery delivery and click-and-collect from every single one of its stores — they basically added that capability overnight,” Symmes said. “Now granted they only have (245) stores, so it’s easier to roll that out.
“That being said, the agility and nimbleness that they have just really makes them a much more effective retailer than some of those larger (grocers),” Symmes said.
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