Kevin Davis - Bristol Farms

A Shelby Report Special Section Honoring

Bristol Farms’ 35th Anniversary & Kevin Davis, Food Industry Hall of Fame Inductee

Kevin Davis could be described as The Most Interesting Man in the Grocery Business.

His career has spanned 45 years already although he’s only 64; he has been married for nearly 36 years to his wife, Cindy, and they have seven kids; he snow-skis, fishes, golfs and goes on bike rides that are 100 miles long or more; he gives back to a number of charities, community organizations and industry organizations (he’s chairman of the Food Marketing Institute until early next year, for example); and he is chairman and CEO of an upscale grocer that competes in the incredibly competitive Southern California marketplace. How he has time to be a successful husband, father (and grandfather), athlete, philanthropist and grocery executive is a question for the ages.

For those reasons and more, The Shelby Report proudly inducts Kevin Davis into the Food Industry Hall of Fame.

See more on page 52.

The Bristol Farms in Santa Monica, which opened in 2013.

Bristol Farms was founded in November 1982 by two men whose careers had been in the meat business. Irv Gronsky and Mike Burbank were moving toward retirement age and so decided to sell their high-end meat business that supplied restaurants and butcher shops. But they weren’t quite ready to stop working altogether, so they decided to try their hand at retail, believing that if they sold fresh, highquality meat, merchandised like one would find in a butcher shop, they could build a customer base.

So the duo opened Bristol Farms in a space once occupied by a chain store in Rolling Hills, California.

As one might imagine, meat was the centerpiece of that first store, complemented by produce, according to Steve Howard, VP of perishables, who has been with company 29 of its 35 years.

Eventually, the store added a full complement of

grocery departments, plus an adjacent café.

The meat department was “full-service, everything behind glass, nothing overwrapped like the industry traditionally stocked,” Howard said. “We had a commissary in the back so the food was made fresh and brought right out to the case daily.

I think (Gronsky and Burbank) were ahead of their time.”

To this day, Bristol Farms does not sell meat that is overwrapped, he added.

Bristol Farms also was ahead of its time in offering sushi in its stores. Gronsky frequented a sushi restaurant and knew he wanted to make it available at Bristol Farms. He began a personal campaign to get the restaurant’s sushi chef, a Japanese émigré named Yoshi Kubo, to come to Bristol Farms.

Eventually, he was successful. Kubo started the

program and over the years trained many other sushi chefs to prepare different kinds of sushi. One of his trainees was Craig Tsuchiyama, who has “taken Yoshi’s program to the next level with poke” at Bristol Farms stores today, Howard says.

Also early on, Bristol Farms operated restaurants inside stores—sitdown full-service restaurants that focused on breakfast and lunch, he said. And there was a need for them, he added. “The Manhattan Beach store at that time (1991) had one of the only restaurants around for those businesses to visit at lunchtime.”

On weekends, many shoppers would visit the restaurant for breakfast as a prelude to their weekly grocery shop at Manhattan Beach.

Because of the highly interactive service departments, Bristol Farms has operated since the beginning; hiring the right people also has been important from the beginning.

“The Gronsky family built the foundation for the company on service and the quality of people they hired,” Howard says. “They wanted people that liked food, liked customers; having everything be a service-oriented market forced interaction with our customers. The customers got to know the employees so it created this family shop vs. a chore that shopping is at times. The Gronskys were some of the early creators of food as theater, food as Disneyland environment, food as a fun place to visit and shop. They were big proponents of sampling, free coffee samples, cheese samples, offering the first slice of the deli meats behind the counter to the customer to make sure the thickness was right.

“They created that fun environment for customers to participate in the experience; that’s still happening today at Bristol Farms, and I think has been copied by a lot of our competitors,” he said.

Steady growth

CONGRATULATIONS KEVIN! A well-deserved honor to “one of the good guys”.

Appreciate your friendship and wishing all the best to you, and your wonderful family.

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That one store in Rolling Hills has bloomed over the past 35 years into 12 Bristol Farms stores—soon to be 13—plus three Lazy Acres stores.

The 17,800-s.f. store in Rolling Hills was followed four years later by a larger store in South Pasadena (22,500 s.f.). Irv Gronsky’s son David ran the South Pasadena store, which offered a selection of housewares shoppers’ convenience. It sold high-end lines like La Creuset.

The Manhattan Beach store, at 33,900 s.f., opened in 1991 with a catering facility and cooking school.

In 1996, Gronsky and Burbank sold the three Bristol Farms stores to Kidd/Kamm, an investment firm, when they were ready to really retire.

In summer 1998, Bristol Farms entered the dynamic Orange County market in Newport Beach. In June 1999, Bristol Farms purchased a small store that was a Hollywood landmark, Chalet Gourmet. Soon after, a store in Westwood opened.

In November 2000, Bristol Farms opened a store at the site of the former Chasen’s restaurant, a hallowed place in the lore of “Old Hollywood.” Bristol Farms preserved many of the restaurant’s elements in the store.

In fact, Bristol Farms make sure to give each store a distinct look and feel based on the community it operates in.

The year 2006 brought another 40 percent growth in size and sales for Bristol Farms with the openings of locations in Westchester, La Jolla and Palm Desert.

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48 The Shelby Report of the West • DECEMBER 2017

Food Industry Hall of Fame From page 46

In August 2013, the Santa Monica store on Wilshire Boulevard opened in a former Albertsons space.

While the Santa Monica location is about the same size as Bristol’s other stores— 30,000 s.f.—it carries about 5,000 more items because back room space was decreased.

The store features a “Starbucks Coffee shop, juice bar, smokehouse, wok station, sushi bar, a cheese cave—everything you would expect from Bristol,” said Kevin Davis, who was president and CEO at the time. Today, Davis is chairman and CEO, following the promotion in March 2015 of Adam Caldecott to president and COO. Caldecott, now president and co-CEO, had been EVP of retail prior to his promotion.

The Santa Monica store’s “food court,” as Davis described it, was the company’s largest at the time. Its features include a salad bar, hot food bar, nine-kettle hot soup island, chili bar, panini bar and carving station.

“We think this store offers the most ready-to-eat, prepared and grab-and-go hot food of any store we have, in addition to the biggest grocery selection in the middle of the store you’ve ever seen,” Davis said.

Bristol Farms has collected a long string of accolades since the first store opened.

The Carson-based gourmet and specialty food retailer has received awards from local media for “Best Small Market” with the best deli, sushi, meat and cooking school. Zagat’s Marketplace Survey also has rated Bristol Farms as the No. 1 market in overall quality and service; stores were described as “a shopper’s beautiful dream with wide aisles, helpful staff and beautiful presentations.”

Up next is a prototype store on Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills that opens Nov. 11 (see page 50).

Howard says, “At 35 years, Bristol Farms is a company that has withstood the test of time. We’ve seen competitors come and go, but we have consistent and true to our quality, our service, our offerings. I think Irv Gronsky and Mike Burbank should be proud of what they started in November of ’82 to where we are, coming up on Steve Howard November of 2017.”

Bristol Farms’ Mission Statement: To Entice Your Passion for Food Beyond the Everyday Experience Core Values: To Sell the Best Tasting Freshest Food Available.

We Are Friendly, Passionate and Knowledgeable People.

To Exceed Our Customer’s Expectations through Extraordinary Service.

Our Stores Are the “Theatre of Retail.”

To be a Responsible Partner in Our Community and Environment.

To Create Shareholder Wealth Through Growth, Profits and Purpose.

Kevin Davis Food Industry Hall of Fame Inductee

35th Anniversary from your friends at

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Food Industry Hall of Fame Letting the Food Speak for Itself Bristol Farms’ new-concept Mulholland store

Bristol Farms’ new prototype store will open Nov. 11.

The 25,000-s.f. store on Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills, located in a space formerly owned by Haggen, is the first major design departure for Bristol Farms in its 35-year history and is “a store that we’ve been dreaming up for a decade,” Kacie Davis, owner of KMDesign Co., which is implementing the design, tells The Shelby Report.

Unlike the somewhat heavy European design features the stores have had, “our main objective was to minimize the décor—to strip it away of all the excess noise in the store and let the food speak for itself,” she says.

Davis, who is the daughter of Bristol Farms Chairman/CEO Kevin Davis, has been working on redesigns for both Lazy Acres and Bristol Farms and has worked in the store design field for four years.

“The food is the only color in the Mulholland store; if there is other color, it’s the signage color which directly relates to the food offering,” she says.

Steve Howard, VP of perishables, says the new design “lets us bridge the older customer to the newer Millennial,” adding that Kacie is “bringing in some different colors and tones that keep us trend-setting while still keeping our same quality.”

The newly designed store was a year and a half in the making, according to Kacie.

The consensus among Kevin Davis, President and Co-CEO Adam Caldecott, advertising executives and other stakeholders was that this was the kind of store to appeal to the next generation.

In a press release about the store, Caldecott said, “We are excited to offer our customers an elevated shopping experience while maintaining Bristol Farms quality and food standards.

“With the Mulholland store, we are kicking off our new concept format and inviting customers to shop, stay, eat and play, becoming the culinary destination for the community. Through the interaction between customers and employees, as well as the store’s local involvement, the Mulholland location will be a place where our shoppers truly feel at home,” he said.

The ‘food hall’ sets store apart One of the distinct features of this new store is a food hall, which runs along the right wall of the store.

Because the entrance to the store is right of center, the food hall (and the produce department) are the first things shoppers see.

“We’re trying to accentuate that fresh feeling right when you walk in the doors,” Kacie says.

Howard adds that when shoppers “walk into produce, they get the color and the sensation of the fresh food experience. We’re 60 percent perishables and 40 percent non-perishables, and we really try to set that tone right when you walk in the door.”

The food hall has 20-foot-plus-high ceilings throughout “that just makes it feel like you’re outside in a farmers market,” Kacie says. “It has so much energy, and that energy really pulls you around the entire perimeter of the store.”

According to Howard, Bristol Farms’ goal is for a shopper to eat at the store at lunchtime and then “come back over the weekends or later that night on their way home from work” to shop again.

On the wall in the food hall are four-and-a-halffoot-tall letters that spell out TASTE. On the face of the letters are real recipe cards from Bristol Farms families, a way to show “the collaboration of people’s ideas within the company,” she says.

The store offers new grab-and-go choices made from classic recipes as well as new seasonal, ethnic meal options, Bristol Farms says. These include fresh, readyto-eat seafood, Asian hot bowls, expanded Poke and Baja Taco bars, organic salad bar and more. “Epicurean” market stations also are set up to offer meal solutions for shoppers.

The store’s artisan California bakery would not be complete without Bristol Farms’ beloved “The Cookie,” served warm all day as well as hundreds of small-batch treats from premium purveyors.

A gelato parlor features on-trend artisanal flavors, and the in-house espresso and coffee concept called “The Daily” serves Intazza coffee. A fresh juice station serves the needs of athletes and non-athletes alike.

The floral department, which is to the left when one walks in, features wooden steps, “and the bouquets are just jumping off of those,” Kacie says.

Howard says floral is not an afterthought in this design but a showpiece.

“It will be our first time that our customer will be able to walk in and immediately interact with our floral team, so we’re excited about that.”

Floral Director Kristin Lares has brought in new varieties, he adds.

“For the holidays we’re going to have a white poinsettia, as well as a red poinsettia. She’s done some new and exciting things, brought a new look and a new flair to the department.”

A one-stop shop The grocery department is behind floral. Kacie says the 25,000-s.f. size is ideal for Bristol Farms stores; that allows the stores to carry the center store items necessary to make them one-stop shops. More than 4,000 natural and organic grocery items as well as traditional grocery products and supplies are on shelves. More natural living and healthcare-type items have been incorporated into the store.

A wine and spirits cave offers both mainstream and “obscure libations,” the company says.

The meat and dairy departments are on the back perimeter of the store. More than 300 international cheeses are displayed in the deli/ dairy section; the butcher shop carries prime and choice USA meats and also offers free seasoning and knife sharpening.

Another unique design feature is a bicycle mounted to the wall; the wheels are the Os in the word “food.”

That feature pays tribute to Bristol Farms’ “slow food” philosophy in addition to the fact that the store is located in a biking community.

“We’re trying to connect with the community and show them that we’re part of the community, too,” Kacie says.

The décor relies materials like wood, chalkboard and galvanized metal—things you might find at your local hardware store.

“We’re using ‘found’ resources; nothing is overly engineered,” she says.

Bristol Farms Mulholland will offer new lifestyle programs including, kids cooking and food education classes, seasonal DIY programs and community involvement through charity programs.

The store—located at 23379 Mulholland Drive—will be open daily 7 a.m.-10 p.m.

It is the 13th Bristol Farms store.

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This calls for a celebration!

Congratulations to Kevin Davis on his induction into the Food Industry Hall of Fame.

Congratulations from your friends at

®, ™, © 2017 Kellogg NA Co.

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Food Industry Hall of Fame Davis Lives Life to Its Fullest, Wherever He Is, Whatever He’s Doing Food Industry Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Davis is chairman and CEO of Bristol Farms and chairman of Lazy Acres, two preeminent specialty and natural food store banners in Southern California celebrating 35 years in business.

The company had three stores when Davis took the helm in 1996; the 12th Bristol Farms will open Nov. 11. That’s not counting three stores under the Lazy Acres banner, which Bristol Farms acquired in 2005. (Bristol Farms, Lazy Acres and Metropolitan Markets in Seattle are sister companies under the Good Food Holdings umbrella, a holding company whose majority shareholder is Endeavour Capital.)

Davis has been with Bristol Farms for more than 21 years now, joining the company in April 1996 after spending about 22 years with Ralphs. He took his first job in the grocery industry as a young teen as a box boy at Shopping Bag in Pasadena.

“I got the job, perhaps in part by showing up in a white short-sleeved shirt and black bow tie ready to work the day I applied,” says Davis, who was not yet 16 at the time.

“I enjoyed the quick pace and action of the front-end at the grocery store, and ran around the place working and getting carts like it was basketball practice, never stopping all day.”

Within just a few weeks, he was promoted to assistant retail clerk and started learning how to stock the shelves.

Soon after, he went to cashier school.

“Whenever I wasn’t in class, I would work,” he says.

“Whenever anyone called in sick, I would come in and work. When they needed a stock clerk in the summer months to work from midnight to 9 a.m., I was happy to come in. I worked so many hours that by the time I was 17 years old, I was already a journeyman retail clerk. Thanks

to the good pay and available hours, I was able to buy my first car—a 1967 red Mustang—while I was still 16 years old.”

After graduating from Pasadena High School, he was accepted to UCLA and wanted to study political science and eventually go to law school. The Shopping Bag store had been sold, so he applied for a job at the Ralphs on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, not far from UCLA. There was a history of working at Ralphs in his family: his younger brother, Kelly, had worked at a Ralphs in Pasadena (where, incidentally, a young Jim Lee, who later worked for Stater Bros. and now the USC FIM Program, was the night manager) and his mother, Beverly, had become an executive secretary for the CFO at Ralphs’ head­quarters.

In 1974, Davis went to work at the “Rock-n-Roll Ralphs” on Sunset Boulevard, he says. “It was the first 24-hour store I ever worked at, and it was a crazy, busy and wild place to work. Everybody from movie stars and famous celebrities to street people and ‘working girls’ packed that store at all hours of the day and night. It was a firsthand learning experience where I literally got the opportunity to do everything you can do in a grocery store.”

At the time, CEO Byron Allumbaugh and President Pat Collins had Ralphs in rapid expansion mode and needed prospective management candidates. They surveyed current employees to see who was attending college and might be interested in moving up the ranks. Davis was encouraged to transfer to USC to get into the Food Industry Management (FIM) Program. He did so, got his FIM certificate and continued his education to get his bachelor’s degree. In the meantime, he had started working at Ralphs in Huntington Beach, where his parents had moved while he was in college. It was there that he

met his future wife, Cindy; she was 16. They would marry four years later, when she was 20 and he was 28.

The climb begins After graduating from USC, he became assistant store manager at the Sunset Boulevard Ralphs; his first store manager job was at the Temple City store in 1980. Jim Brown, longtime SVP of store operations for Ralphs, gave Davis the Temple City job. The store happened to be the closest one to Brown’s home, so “every day at about 4:45 I could look up and he would walk through the front door of my store at Temple City, on his way home from visiting stores. So we got to know each other very well.”

Brown would become one of Davis’ biggest mentors.

One of the lessons he taught Davis was what to look for when hiring people.

“He always told me, ‘Don’t expect people to change.

They sometimes do, but if you hire somebody that has a scowl on their face, they’re not going to be smiling when you see them in the checkstand. So hire someone who’s upbeat and smiling and happy, and we can teach them how to do the job.’

“He just had great values and was a great people person,” Davis says. “He was always full of energy.”

Brown worked for Ralphs for 50 years—from age 15 to 65—and during his tenure Ralphs grew from about 30 to about 230 stores.

Brown chose Davis to serve as director of store operations administration after Davis had been a store manager for about a year.

After a couple of years in that role, Davis went back out into the stores. In 1985, Ralphs acquired the former Zody’s Please see page 58

“Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.”

– John Maxwell

Kevin Davis is the true definition of a leader.

Congratulations on your induction into the Food Industry Hall of Fame and Bristol Farms 35 years of service, quality, and great food. from your friends at

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Congratulations to Kevin Davis for being inducted into the

Cheers

Thank you for all your support!

From your friends at

We are honored to have you on our team!

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Food Industry Hall of Fame From page 52 Department Store buildings, 14 stores averaging 100,000 s.f. of retail space. Davis and a “small but talented team,” as he describes them, helped develop a store format to operate within these large stores as well as hire and train the staffs to run them.

“In 1986, after successfully opening a $1-million-aweek prototype store in Bakersfield called the Giant, we proceeded to open one Giant store each week for 14 weeks in a row across Southern California,” Davis says.

While the Giant stores, now operating under the Ralphs banner, were eventually folded up, “the entrepreneurial experience and fast pace of all that we accomplished during those years stuck with me,” he says. That experience would be used at Bristol Farms in about a decade.

After his work on the Giant project, Davis was offered a job on the marketing side as director of sales and advertising, reporting to Al Marasca, who would later become president of Ralphs.

Brown couldn’t understand why Davis would want to leave store operations, telling him that he had planned to make him a VP on the operations side eventually.

But Davis saw the move to marketing as a way he could benefit his operations brethren: “I said, ‘Well, Jim, I’ve seen what marketing and advertising have done to the store operations guys over the years, and I think it’s about time we have a store operations guy running advertising.’”

Brown said, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

So Brown “kind of anointed me to take that job,” Davis said. “Without his support I probably wouldn’t have gotten it. I was in advertising and marketing, but I never lost my store operations roots because of him and his great values and great work ethic. He was first one in and last one out of the office. Just a great, hard-working guy his whole career.”

About a year after Ralphs was acquired by an investor—Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos.—Davis resigned to

One of Kevin Davis’ favorite photos is from 1996, when he was the newly named president of Bristol Farms. At a City of Hope event, these industry legends—presidents and CEOs of western food retailers—invited him to pose for a photo with them. From left: Kevin Davis; Byron Allumbaugh and Al Marasca, Ralphs; Jack Brown, Stater Bros.; Larry Del Santo, Bill Davila and Dick Goodspeed, Vons; Don Baker, Stater Bros.

become EVP of Bristol Farms, in May 1996. By July, he had been promoted to president by the Bristol Farms board.

In February 1997, he was named chairman, president and CEO. In March 2015, EVP of Retail Adam Caldecott was named president and COO, with Davis continuing as chairman and CEO. Davis has been very active in food industry associations during his career. He is a past Chairman of the California Grocers Association (CGA); president emeritus of the Western Association of Food Chains (WAFC); and

This foursome teamed up every year at the California Grocers Association annual convention for many years.

From left: Jerry Whitmore, Nestlé/Dreyers; Bob Stiles, Gelson’s; Kevin Davis, Bristol Farms; and Mike Stamper, Nestlé.

As chairman, Davis addresses the audience at the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference in early 2017.

past chairman of Unified Western Grocers (now Supervalu West).

Currently, he is finishing out his term as chairman of the Food Marketing Institute. His two-year term began in January 2016.

Family’s important role Kevin and his younger brother Kelly got to know their maternal grandparents when they were children, traveling from Los Angeles to Denver on an overnight train to visit them on school breaks. In the summer, they would go to the North Platte River and their grandfather would teach them to fly fish; in the winter, they would go to Winter Park and he would teach them to snow ski.

“We had the time of our lives.

We thought all everybody in Denver did was get off the train and go fishing or skiing,” says Davis, who continues to enjoy those activities to this day.

Davis’ grandfather had worked in his father-in-law’s grocery store during the Depression. An engineering student who had to drop out of college because of the Depression, he became a butcher. The couple came to own the store after her father died, and Davis’ grandfather worked there until they sold it.

“Years later, when we went to visit them in Wichita, we learned that they operated the grocery store from 8 to 5, then shut down at 6 for an hour for dinner and then went back to work next door, which was the beer bar of

Kevin’s contributions to the food industry demonstrate a commitment to excellence!

Thank you for allowing us to join the industry in honoring Kevin!

C ONGR AT ULATION S T O KE VIN DAV IS OF B R IST OL FA RMS

Renee D. Wasserman, Esq. Shareholder and Chair of RJO’s Retail Trade Practice Group rwasserman@rjo.com

ON HIS INDUC TION IN TO T HE FOOD INDU STRY HALL OF FAME.

311 California Street, 10th Floor San Francisco, CA 94104 415.956.2828, Fax 415.956.6457

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Food Industry Hall of Fame From page 58 the neighborhood. Guys coming home from work would stop by, and my grandfather would go from butcher to bartender. They did so well that later in life they owned every house on that street.”

After he died, she had to sell her rental houses before moving to California to be near her daughter, Kevin’s mom, Beverly Brockmeyer.

Incidentally, Kevin lost his brother Kelly in October 2013 following an auto accident. Kelly, who had served as Mary Davis, Kevin’s paternal grandmother, was born in Wichita, Kansas, and lived there most of her life.

Her husband was a state senator from Kansas and he owned the newspaper in Wichita that still exists today, The Wichita Eagle.

“My grandmother worked at the paper and then came to California after he passed away and lived here and worked at the Post Advocate newspaper in Arcadia until she could no longer work,” Davis says. “At 99 years and 11 months old we were planning a big birthday party at our home for her, and she passed away that very week. So when everybody came to our home to celebrate her 100th birthday we had a celebration of life of her 99 years, 11 months and three weeks.”

Kevin and Kelly Davis

director of warehouse and distribution for Bristol Farms, was just a week shy of his 58th birthday.

Kevin and Cindy married on Nov. 14, 1981, and soon will celebrate their 36th anniversary.

They have seven kids—four girls and three boys—though neither of them had families as large as that growing up (four children in each of their families). Davis was named Father of the Year by the Los Angeles Times many years ago, and he said he told them he hoped it was for Married for nearly 36 years, Kevin “quality, not quantity.” and his wife, Cindy, who met All of them have “K” where else but in the supermarket, names, like their dad: have seven children.

Kerry, Kacie, Kristen, Kody, Karly, Kennedy and Kelli.

“They have just been wonderful…sometimes difficult, sometimes easy, but always fun. It makes for a fast life with all that going on,” Davis says. They had the kids in a 12-year span.

And all of them have worked in the business at one time or another.

“They’ve all had a taste of the grocery industry, which I think has given them some practical experience about what work means and about hard work and about the difficulty of sometimes sacrificing holidays and weekends and evenings to do the job because that’s when the business occurs.

They’ve all learned that and they’ve all done great. We’re really proud of them.”

Kevin gives Cindy a lot of credit for her role in raising the kids (see page 66).

“It wouldn’t all happen without Cindy. With the hectic schedule that I have, both in business and in the community, the association boards I serve on and everything that we’ve done, it just wouldn’t happen and you can’t have a family as big as we have, without having somebody at home,” he says. “So Cindy, when we had our first child, became a stay-athome mom and took care of the kids over the last 25 years or so as they’ve been growing up and really done a fabulous job.”

Not only has she taken care of her family, she also has “a philanthropic streak,” he adds.

“She really cares about kids and helping them.”

Cindy currently is chairman of Hope House in Anaheim, which is a charity that helps kids struggling with drug or alcohol addiction by way of a nonprofit halfway house. She’s been on the board there for many years and currently serves as chairman of that organization, he says.

“She gives to everybody every day and then she tries to find a way to give back. So I’m very fortunate to have had her support me throughout my career and make everything that I’ve done possible.”

In addition to taking care of the kids and Kevin, Cindy also took care of her grandmother who had Alzheimer’s for 14 years while the kids were young.

Both Cindy and the kids “are very passionate about giving back,” and their experience with Cindy’s grandmother led daughter Kelli to create an Alzheimer’s fundraiser at her high school and now at her college sorority.

“The kids were all instrumental and learned a lot from having that experience with their grandmother while they were growing up. We used to push around the wheelchair that she was in at Disneyland and on trips to Hawaii, everywhere we went.”

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Food Industry Hall of Fame About Kevin...

Anyone who has had the pleasure of working with Kevin over the past two decades at Bristol Farms can tell you of his passion, his dedication and his commitment. I can’t image a more fitting way to celebrate the 35 years of success for Bristol Farms than by honoring the man who has played such an important role growing the Bristol Farms brand, promoting the success of the grocery industry and giving back to the communities we call home.



—Kimberly M. Talley, partner, Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

Kevin Davis and I first met at a WAFC (Western Association of Food Chains) event in San Francisco. He seemed so relaxed when he was away from his home base and his day job…

But looks can be deceiving. I immediately discovered that same intensity he demonstrated as a grocery executive translated to his industry involvement. And it was my working with Kevin as an Illuminator that we became friends and I discovered that he was the real deal. We soon began a friendship that included industry weekend events, bike riding, shotguns, boating, fishing and killer games of liars dice. I’ve seen KD operate a major grocery chain, a grocery chain, negotiate a management-led buyout and work out deals with the labor unions, but it was the ride over the Continental Divide where our business friendship developed into what soon became best friends.

Kevin will push himself further than any man I know. He will not quit. One time we were riding hard up Silverado Canyon, and KD worked so hard he…well, maybe it was something he ate.

Then there was the ride over the Continental Divide, well not the ride so much as the finance deal he was up all night with, but as he rode by me that morning he said, “I’ll probably be fine.”

KD is a very adventurous guy, with a keen sense of heritage, his place in time and family. One time we were in southeast Alaska at the “P” bar and this old fisherman walks in…oh, I better not go there…So many stories, but I’m afraid if I share too much KD will do law school in his spare time and I could be stuck in litigation for decades.

Kevin has a very quick wit and an incredible sense of humor. He’s so intelligent and observant. He makes me laugh at incredibly awkward times but some of his take on people and their mannerism is more than any best friend should be forced to endure.

He’s an accomplished writer and is even known to write poetry. He’s always a scholar first, well read and fun loving.

All the greatest things a best friend is made of. We have recently started Dick Cheney skeet shooting school, so I just hope I don’t piss him off.

It’s hard for me to think about KD without Cinderella, that’s his reference to his bride. The beautiful, hardworking mother of the year is incredibly caring, and she is as protective of KD as her own children and is never shy about telling me, Kevin needs a break. Take him fishing! What lucky kids to have a magical storybook mom and dad like Kevin and Cindy.

—Bob Kelly, Hidden Villa Ranch

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It is an honor for me to recognize a tremendous leader in the U.S. food industry. Kevin has been a passionate and highly engaged executive not only for Bristol Farms but also for the food industry at large.

He personally demonstrates the leadership qualities that make others take note and want to join his team. We have marveled at the many accomplishments and innovations produced by Kevin and his team at Bristol Farms, and we can’t wait to see what is coming next.

Kevin served as a member of the 2002-06 Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council and, during that time, we were privileged to get to know he and Cindy a little better both personally and professionally.

Both are genuine, fun-loving and gracious. We not only greatly appreciate the business relationship, we also are thankful Please see page 64

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Food Industry Hall of Fame From page 62 for the friendship.

On behalf of all Coca-Cola associates in North America, congratulations to Kevin and to Bristol Farms.

of industry events over the last 20 years, along with his support of our future business leaders through his involvement with the WAFC and USC FIMP (Food Industry Management Program). Congratulations!

—Sandy Douglas, president, Coca-Cola North America

—Rob McDougall, president and CEO, Gelson’s



I’m so happy to hear that you are being inducted into the Hall of Fame. You are truly deserving of this honor.

I’ve been fortunate to have worked with you at FMI and have seen firsthand your commitment to the industry. As a fellow share group member, your willingness to share your knowledge has helped me make my company a better place to work and shop. Congratulations, Kevin!



—Joe Colalillo, ShopRite of Hunterdon County

In this industry, there are a few SoCal grocers with a leader that is inextricably linked with their companies and, certainly, Bristol Farms is one of those. It’s impossible to think about Bristol Farms without Kevin and his generous support



Dear Kevin, Congratulations on receiving the prestigious Food Industry Hall of Fame Award. I am very proud of you. You now join the Who’s Who of the Food Industry past and present.

It does not surprise me that you have attained such success in your career. It was very clear early in your development that you were headed for the top. Not only were you outstanding in early positions at Ralphs, including district manager, sales manager, VP of sales, group VP of sales and merchandising and finally SVP of

marketing, but it was clear that you where headed for even greater positions.

It was truly an honor and a privilege to have served with you during those great years at Ralphs—I will always cherish them as I know you will.

You are truly a credit to the entire Food Industry.

Your Friend, Al Marasca Retired president of Ralphs

 

I immensely admire Kevin for his leadership abilities and his brilliance. I’ve learned a great deal from him over the years. He’s truly been an inspiration for me.

No Kidding,

Norman Mayne

I had attended many industry events where Kevin Davis was present, but I first had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Kevin Davis after Albertsons purchased Bristol Farms.

Kevin is a very dynamic and innovative individual.

He’s always willing to share his knowledge and experiences with those who have the desire to learn and gain from the information.

One of my most memorable meetings was when I met Kevin in a restaurant in downtown Long Beach shortly after Bristol Farms became part of the Albertsons portfolio.

I was the vice president of fresh foods, which was one of the most exciting areas of grocery to be in. Kevin and I spent a couple of hours discussing the power of fresh foods and the consumer draw, how to stay unique and relevant, upcoming trends and innovations to stay close to, successes other countries were having in fresh foods and the list goes on.

He was a wealth of knowledge and openly shared how he challenged himself and his team to stay relevant, to travel (for) new culinary experiences and to not settle for what everyone else in the business was doing.

I’ll always remember that meeting, and I know I left there with more knowledge and motivation than when I arrived.

Thank you, Kevin, for your passion and willingness to share it.

—Tammy Brusseau, COO, Horizon Sales Corp.



Congratulations, Kevin, on this well-deserved honor.

You are a blessing and angel to City of Hope, our industry and so many charities.

Thank you for taking such good care of OUR KIDS and their families.

We love you! Congratula­ tions Mr. P.P. —Cheryl Kennick, senior director-corporate philanthropy, City of Hope/ Food Industries Circle, and the entire City of Hope family

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CONGRATULATIONS KEVIN DAVIS ON BEING INDUCTED INTO THE FOOD INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME. FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT

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Food Industry Hall of Fame What the Davis ‘kids’ are doing now When their seventh child was born, the Davises sent out “Magnificent Seven” birth announcements. Here’s what they’re up to now.

Kerry

The oldest, Kerry is 32; married to Courtney and father of two: Edmund Levi Davis, who will be two on Kevin and Cindy’s anniversary this year, and Reese Michelle, who is about seven months old. Levi is the ninth generation of Edmunds, reaching back to the 1600s in England. (Kerry’s first name is Edmund; Kevin’s is, too). Kerry worked at the Newport Beach Bristol Farms when he was younger. Now he is in the electrical engineering business, newly named as president of the solar division for Foshay Electric, an electrical engineering firm in San Diego County. “The solar panel division is now the fastest-growing division in that company and my son is running sales and development for that company,” Kevin says. “We’re real proud of his accomplishments there.”

He and his family live in Poway in north San Diego County.

Cindy Davis and her daughters

Kacie

Next is Kacie Davis. She went to Loyola Marymount and double-majored in graphic design and communications. She became a graphic designer right out of high school and did work in the stores and in Bristol Farms’ advertising department. She then went to work for Debbie English Designs, which once was Bristol Farms’ in-house design firm. (Debbie was VP of construction for Bristol Farms before going into business for herself.) Kacie has worked on designs for Bristol Farms and Whole Foods stores on the West Coast for the last few years, “until we got busy enough that she spun off and now she just does our stores,” Davis says (both Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres). She’s an independent contractor who has a few employees working for her. She has a three-year-old daughter, Brooke.

Kristen

Kristen Davis attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and briefly worked at the Lazy Acres store there. “I think she kind of became a hippie at heart when she was at Santa Barbara,” Kevin says. “She loves the natural organic and health food-oriented products and lifestyle.”

Kristen then worked at the Lazy Acres store in Long Beach in the natural vitamin and supplement department. Today, she is a “broker’s rep for some small, independent lines of products in that sector and sells them to natural food stores and to Lazy Acres. She does everything from arranged product demos to actually selling products in that sector of the business, which is very fast-growing and exciting and fun and very lifestyle oriented,” Kevin says. “She loves the business from that perspective, and I think the roots of it were started in the grocery business, working with us.”

Kody

Kody has worked in the meat department of the Newport Beach Bristol Farms for several years, “part-time while he was in school and full-time since he got out of school,” Kevin says, noting that Newport Beach has the highest volume meat department in the company. “He really loves the meat department and wants to work his way up. He’s one of the best sales guys we have in the company, wins a lot of sales contests and does really well as he’s learning the business.”

Kody recently was promoted to assistant manager of the meat department in Bristol Farms’ highest volume store, Beverly Hills, so he is about to transfer.

“It’s a long drive, but I tell him it’s a worthwhile experience to work downtown in the busiest store,” his dad says. “He’ll get great exposure for that.

“I think maybe the grocery industry is in his blood, maybe more than any of the other kids. He really loves retail and loves store-level work. I think he’s one that might stay in the business forever, I don’t know.”

Karly

Karly went to school at Cal State Fullerton and graduated with a degree in psychology. She worked at the Newport Beach store while she was in school and afterward in different areas, including as a cake decorator in the bakery and then in the catering department, Kevin says. A “very creative” person, Karly recently left Bristol Farms to go to work as an administrative assistant and analyst for Peter Ueberroth’s investment firm called the Contrarian Group in Newport Beach, near the Bristol Farms store. “She’s having a lot of fun working for the investment firm and especially somebody that’s creative and well-known as Peter Ueberroth, who gives her a ton of experience and exposure in all the different investments that he owns and operates, which is very unique for folks that know who he is.” (He was the Commissioner of Baseball from 1984-89 and chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.)

Kennedy

Kevin describes 22-year-old Kennedy as “kind of an old soul.” He played soccer in college and is currently a senior at Cal State- Fullerton. “He is a business major and very, very focused on business,” his dad says. “He really thinks very strategically about business.”

He did an insurance internship one summer, followed by one in Nestlé’s confections division, where he did analysis of the company’s social and digital media programs and advertising.

“He learned a tremendous amount interning during this past summer for Nestle. I have an inkling that he’ll be in the business as well,” Kevin says. “He’s only worked in the business periodically because of school and soccer commitments. He’s primarily worked for us during holidays, packing holiday meals, working in the catering kitchen, the Central Kitchen or at catered events where we need servers or bartenders. He is a very hard-working kid and saves all his money.”

Kevin expects him to pursue a graduate degree and “perhaps staying in business in some capacity, related to our industry. He’s been offered a couple jobs already, but I tell him school comes first.”

Kelli

“My final of the ‘magnificent seven’ kids is my youngest daughter, Kelli, and she is 20 years old,” Kevin says.

A junior at Cal State Fullerton, she is the VP of membership in her sorority. Kelli started an Alzheimer’s Club fundraiser while she was at Canyon High School, and she’s “heavily involved in philanthropy, both periodically at the City of Hope for various activities and through her sorority chapter, Sigma Kappa,” he says.

Kelli has worked in the stores primarily during special holidays and events at Central Kitchen and packing meals due to her school and sorority commitments.

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The Da

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Food Industry Hall of Fame From page 60

Giving back and passing the torch “One of the things I think is really key, and when I get a chance I often talk about with the industry, is the opportunity to give back,” Davis says.

He learned it from not just Ralphs, where he worked, but from the entire Southern California food industry. Industry competitors “put down their swords” and come together to serve organizations like City of Hope (cancer and diabetes research and treatment); Olive Crest (helping at-risk kids through foster care and other services); CCEJ (California Conference for Equality and Justice, providing an option for probation officers, school counselors and clergy to refer troubled kids to, instead of sending them to jail); Boy Scouts of Orange County; and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a cause the industry rallied behind largely because of Shelby Klug, daughter of industry executives Sue Klug and Todd Klug. (Shelby received a double-lung transplant about two years ago and now is cured, but she faced death prior to that time; Kevin Davis played a role in connecting the Klugs with the transplant doctor at UCLA Medical Center that would save Shelby’s life.)

Competitors working together for the common good “is unique to the West Coast,” he says. “As chairman of FMI right now and in share groups with companies all over the country—they do not do this elsewhere. We might fight

hard every day of the week as competitors and market against each other and build stores against each other and do everything we can to succeed, but we also know when to put down our swords and when to work together for the common good and for the communities Jim Lee, right, one of Kevin we all serve. That’s Davis’ best friends and industry been something that colleagues who now works for was created by our USC’s FIM Program, presents Davis predecessors in our with an award from CCEJ, a cause industry who had a near and dear to Davis, and one lot of foresight, and that he has been involved with for I try to carry that more than 30 years. torch to the next generation, to let them know how important that is for our communities and our industry. It puts our industry as a group in a much better light than it would if we each just did our own self-serving PR events.

“I’ve always wanted to be involved in philanthropy for both personal fulfillment as well as the way it serves our companies,” Davis says.

Outside the industry, he is a director and past chairman of the California Hospital Medical Center Foundation Board and has been involved with the hospital for 22 years. The downtown L.A. private hospital was started by nuns more than a century ago as part of their charity work, Davis says, and while there are hospitals closer to his home that he could be involved with, they get plenty of funding and “don’t need me as much.”

The nonprofit hospital, now part of the Dignity Health Foundation hospital chain, “more than any other serves the mission of the sisters”—helping the indigent, immigrants and “people that come from the tough part of L.A.,” he says. But with its downtown location, it also serves people who work in the high-rises and visitors to entertainment venues downtown.

“It is the trauma center for downtown Los Angeles… and they also have nearly the most births in Southern California of any hospital, second only to USC Medical Center County General Hospital.”

The board raises money for the hospital—the most in the Dignity Health chain—with events such as La Grande Affaire, a French-style dinner and fundraiser “that’s a very elaborate, fun event where we launch the Nouveau Beaujolais wine every year and have the first tasting of that. It’s a high-end, black-tie event that raises about half a million dollars a year for the hospital.”

Bristol Farms as a company also gives back in a variety of ways, including through the education of its team members. The company has many employees that take

CONGR ATULATIONS Kevin Davis

on your induction into the Food Industry Hall of Fame!

From your friends at Milton’s Craft Bakers

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Thank You Kevin Davis for your incredible support of the City of Hope. Your efforts on our behalf have saved countless lives.

There is nobody more deserving than you, to be honored and inducted into the Food Industry Hall of Fame.

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Kids 4 Hope was a program developed by Kevin Davis, WAFC’s Carole Christianson and her husband, food broker Paul Christianson, “to help teach kids about philanthropy and paying it forward,” Davis says.

Though the program started out to be more about awareness of pediatric cancer than raising money, today it raises more than $1 million a year for City of Hope.

Bristol Farms’ Pat Posey currently is chairman of Kids 4 Hope.

Retail Management Certificate courses. Davis himself, supported by full scholarships from the Western Association of Food Chains, graduated from the USC’s Food Industry Management (FIM) Program in 1978 and later graduated as class president of the Executive Program in the Graduate School of Business at UCLA. He was named Alumnus of the Year by the FIM Program in 1999 and Executive of the Year in 2011.

A time for play With a schedule as full as his, Davis has to make a concerted effort to participate in the activities he enjoys, which include fishing, skiing and biking.

“I enjoy everything, and I learned that, I think, from both my dad and my grandfathers, who were very, well diversified and kind of renaissance guys who did everything.”

Kevin’s father, who died when Kevin was fairly young “painted and was an engineer at Hughes.

My grandfather was a rosarian who raised award-winning roses and yet was a great fisherman and hunter and a really smart guy. He taught me chess when I was eight years old and gave me about five books to read before Please see page 70

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Food Industry Hall of Fame From page 68 he’d play me the first time. They were really students of life and art, and I think I have a streak of that. Because of that, I’ve always liked to keep really busy doing different things.”

Kevin learned to fly-fish from his maternal ­grandfather.

He played basketball and tennis as a kid and learned to snow ski early on from his grandfather. He taught all his kids to ski, too, often taking them night-skiing even as preschoolers. They still do family ski trips today.

On the road: (back row) John White, Chicken of the Sea; Bob Kelly, Hidden Villa Ranch; Kevin Davis; Dave Hirz, Smart & Final; Pete Hejny, Unified Grocers; and Karl Schroeder, Safeway/Albertsons; (front row) the spotter; Don Ropele, Ralphs (retired); and Michele Markus.

Kevin and Cindy meet up on the bike trail.

think alternative formats have been growing over the past 10 or 15 years at the expense of traditional grocers who haven’t had the same philosophy. So we feel the future is bright.”

Davis, at 64, is at a point in his career where there are some options.

“I could retire next year or the year after or any time, but I have a lot of passion and energy left and I think a lot of experience that I can help retailers with our own company or others,” he says, acknowledging that his great equity partners at Endeavour Capital eventually will want the money out of their investment. “When that happens, I’ll evaluate the opportunities either with Bristol Farms or in the industry to make a contribution as long as they feel that I can make one. I don’t want to quit doing what I love doing; I think at some level I will always have something to contribute to the industry. It’s been very good to me and helped me take care of my family of seven and build this chain from three stores to 23, with four under construction if you count Bristol Farms, Lazy Acres and Metropolitan Markets all together. We’re doing very well and continuing to grow.”

He often fishes with industry colleagues, locally as well as places like Alaska.

What’s ahead He also learned to ski from that same grandfather.

Though he has known how to ride a bike since he was a kid, he got into serious biking eight or nine years ago as a way to get exercise that wasn’t so tough on his knees.

He started riding a lot, and the unique tan he developed from wearing his bicycle kit that he would show on the golf course got people asking him if he was a rider. That led to groups forming to take rides of 100 miles or more.

“We have a great time doing it; it’s very fun and social and healthy,” Davis says. “It’s tough to find the time to do it and to keep in shape. But I fully intend to keep that up and ride a lot more as my schedule permits.”

Kevin with Dave Hirz of Smart & Final.

He was taught to fly fish as a young kid by his grandfather as well. Kevin inherited a lot of his gear when he passed away.

“It’s kind of an art, but it’s very relaxing on the river when you’re fishing,” he says. “You can’t hear anything but the water. You don’t hear phones ringing, there’s no other noise—just the silence of the forest and the water. We do a lot of catch-and-release of steelhead and other species of fish that are endangered.”

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Davis, in response to the question of what he sees ahead for the industry, said, “The industry has been changing for years, certainly during the 45 years I’ve been in it.

“It’s changed dramatically from when I was a box boy.

Then, 98 percent of the food eaten at home was bought at traditional grocery stores. Today, that number is 48 percent, and the other 50 percent is at alternative channels, whether it’s Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods or Sprouts or Bristol or Lazy Acres or Smart & Final, dollar stores, CVS, Aldi, Lidl, all that. There are so many different channels of trade now, and now digital is just another one of those.

Whether it’s home delivered by Amazon or one of those alternative channels, the evolution has already begun and it’s evolving. The stores that people shop for food— the methods, the channels they use to get food—are changing and they continue to change.”

He sees online grocery shopping as still mainly the domain of commodity-type items—those that are the same no matter where they are purchased—and that is likely to continue. Home delivery is another topic that is constantly in the news but, again, the percentage of people who are looking for home delivery of groceries is likely to not be more than 20 percent at its height. Why? Partly because half of U.S. consumers have a household income under the average ($57,000) and don’t have the means to pay for delivery; also partly because many consumers don’t live in areas where home delivery is an option geographically.

Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres offer delivery service, but “it’s very difficult to order fish of the day when you don’t know what it is, or you don’t believe it’s fresh unless you can smell it, or you want the butcher to cut you a steak of a certain thickness, or you just want to taste or smell the soup of the day at the café or the restaurant or the product people are demonstrating—foods that are highly oriented towards fresh and value-added products like Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres are focused on. We know that our ability to draw customers to our store is really based on our ability to merchandise and provide qualitative difference and points of difference to our customers that they can’t experience at every other store. That’s why I

Davis talks with former Speaker of the House John Boehner at the NGA Show in February 2017.

When Bristol Farms opened its store in the former Chasen’s Restaurant in the Beverly Hills area, at which famous people were known to eat, they decided to fashion the grand opening after a movie premiere, a private party complete with celebrity lookalikes. But one real star showed up at the door and asked if he could join in, comedian Buddy Hackett. Knowing that people would think he was a lookalike, he still wanted to sit in his favorite booth (Bristol Farms kept the original red leather booths) and take pictures with people. Kevin poses for a photo with Hackett and the Marilyn Monroe lookalike. Hackett shopped at the store for many years after that, Davis says.

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