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BASHAS' GROWS WHEN THERE IS A NEED

CHANDLER, Ariz. -- Bashas' here has grown into the third-largest retailer in Arizona without losing its core values."No matter how large we get, Eddie Basha Jr., [chairman] says he wants to be sure he's able to keep his arms wrapped around our members -- that's the mission he gave me when I was hired," Mimi Meredith, corporate spokeswoman for the 143-store chain, told SN.Although the chain has grown

CHANDLER, Ariz. -- Bashas' here has grown into the third-largest retailer in Arizona without losing its core values.

"No matter how large we get, Eddie Basha Jr., [chairman] says he wants to be sure he's able to keep his arms wrapped around our members -- that's the mission he gave me when I was hired," Mimi Meredith, corporate spokeswoman for the 143-store chain, told SN.

Although the chain has grown rapidly over the last 10 years -- through a combination of acquisitions and ground-up construction, including 11 new locations last year -- it has been able to achieve the chairman's goal largely because of the longevity of some of its employees, she said.

"People in middle management and many store directors who remember when the company had just 50 stores still have that sense of personal commitment they had when we were a smaller company, and they pass that on to newer members," Meredith said.

In addition, corporate training programs emphasize the family values and service aspects that have driven Bashas' business for 70 years and made it distinctive in the marketplace, she pointed out.

Bashas' believes that, through sheer determination and a dedication to the people of Arizona, it has been able to outlast most of the independent competition that once covered the area. As the state's third-largest retailer, Bashas' controls a 19% market share, compared with 32% for Kroger-owned Fry's Food Stores and 21% for Safeway.

Over the past year, the 11 stores have resulted in a unit increase of 6.8%, while sales grew 6.5% to $1.7 million, compared with $1.4 million a year earlier.

Of the 11 stores, five ground-up stores carry the conventional Bashas' banner; two newly built stores in Peoria and Tucson, Ariz., carry the AJ's specialty banner; and four inner-city stores in the Phoenix area carry the Food City banner. Those four locations were acquired from two other operators, Meredith said.

Acquisition has accounted for the largest segment of the chain's growth over the past decade. "We would go to places no one else would go because we're privately owned," Wayne Manning, the chain's president, told SN last year. "One weakness some other companies have is that they won't go outside the metropolitan areas, but we have made a commitment to go wherever we're needed. That's been our evolving strategy."

Aside from internal growth, a portion of the chain's sales growth last year came from the decision to supply a group of IGA stores in Arizona and New Mexico following the closing of Fleming's Phoenix-based distribution center last spring. Of the original 32 IGA customers, Bashas' continues to serve as wholesaler to 20 of them, Meredith said.

Bashas' had dabbled in serving outside customers over the years, she pointed out, and when the IGA business was up for grabs, the chain was able to accommodate the volume through its warehouse facilities because of a 510,000-square-foot expansion that concluded shortly before Fleming left the area, Meredith said.

"But our acquisitions and new-store growth didn't drive our buying power," she noted. "We prepared ourselves for additional sales by expanding the warehouse capacity and improving our relationship with our vendor-supplier partners, which is a natural part of our business practice."