JURGENS WILL 'STAY THE COURSE' AS HY-VEE CEO

DAVID GHITELMAN

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- Ric Jurgens, who became chief executive officer and chief operating officer at Hy-Vee here on New Year's Day, is not planning any radical changes for the company, which should surprise no one.

After all, Jurgens has been with Hy-Vee since 1969, when he started working there part time while he was a business student at Iowa State University in Ames. In the last 34 years, he has risen through the ranks as a store manager, division manager and head of the company's perishables subsidiary.

A private, employee-owned corporation operating 190 supermarkets and 28 drug stores in seven Midwestern states, Hy-Vee had sales of $4.2 billion in the fiscal year that ended in September. Stability in management has been one of its guiding principles. Jurgens is the 73-year-old company's third CEO.

His predecessor as CEO, Ron Pearson, who had held that title since 1989, will be staying on as chairman of the board, which meets monthly, and as chairman of its executive committee, which meets "weekly, if not more often," he explained.

"I'm out in the stores right now," Pearson said. "I'm not retiring."

Jurgens became CEO, Pearson noted, because "it was time to divide duties. I just need to focus on the big-picture items, and Ric will be running the company on a day-to-day basis."

Rather than change direction, Jurgens told SN that he intends to concentrate on building on Hy-Vee's current strengths. "I think the biggest challenge we have is to simply stay the course of what we know, what we believe in, and what our customers want," he said.

However, he noted that he will change in order to give his customers more of what they like. "We have modified our stores to address their desire for health-related products," he said. "We have a major focus on pharmacy. We will continue our efforts to make our perishables the finest in the country. And we are also developing a strong general merchandise program."

Jurgens stated that he expects to do this with little change in personnel. "One of the critical things about being a private company is that we grow our leadership from within," he said, "so all the key leaders will remain in place under my watch."