HVHC’s Visionworks has been ranked #150 on Forbes’ national “Best Employers” list, among companies within a range of industries and institutions, and was also ranked #14 on the related “Best Employers in Texas” report. With feedback like that, it’s easy to see how exciting it is to be a part of the HVHC family. At a time when many companies are scaling back their employee and even customer experience, HVHC is showing the industry how to succeed.

To properly introduce HVHC, it’s necessary to understand just what comprises this quickly growing corporation. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, HVHC Inc. and its subsidiaries make up one of the largest vertically integrated optical companies in the United States and are leaders in integrated vision care solutions. HVHC is a three--spoke corporation comprised of national optical retailer, Visionworks, managed vision care provider; Davis Vision; and HVHC Distribution and Manufacturing, the operations arm that supports Visionworks and Davis Vision. These three branches interact in a mutually beneficial relationship, supporting each other’s industries and providing a comprehensive customer experience.

From its inception in 1984, Visionworks, then called Eye Care Centers of America, has been a retailer with a passion. Whether it’s providing regular eye exams to encourage health and wellness or helping a customer to express their individual style with dozens of top fashions, Visionworks goes well beyond the business of eyewear, creating a collective calling shared by every employee. This calling is to make sure that every customer that enters a Visionworks store leaves with the best possible vision and a style that fits their self-expression. “At the end of the day, people come to us because they want to have the best possible vision they can have,” Visionworks President and HVHC President and CEO Jim Eisen emphasizes. Visionworks takes that desire and makes it a company mission.

In 2006, Eye Care Centers of America and Davis Vision joined forces, providing members with access to the largest selection of fashionable eyewear. Founded 100 years ago as Davis Optical, Davis Vision now has more than 60,000 points of access, while remaining true to its family owned American roots and values. More than 22 million members enjoy the lowest possible out-of-pocket cost, due largely to the integrated business model of HVHC, which relies on Visionworks retail stores and wholly owned labs. While Visionworks offers its customers all the products and services necessary to serve their vision needs, Davis Vision improves on that experience through improved plan designs and ready access to high-quality, fashionable eyewear and state-of-the-art eye care services.

HVHC Distribution and Manufacturing provides the products and operations necessary to make Visionworks and Davis Vision the successes they are. HVHC Distribution and Manufacturing encompasses five fabrication labs and two distribution centers, all proudly based in the United States. With these resources, HVHC fabricated and delivered more than 4.8 million pairs of eyewear in 2016. By eliminating any intermediary, HVHC Distribution and Manufacturing is able to ensure that every product sold in a Visionworks store is of the highest quality and that out-of-pocket costs for Davis Vision customers are as low as possible. With unique partnerships, top expertise and advanced robotics and processing equipment, HVHC Distribution and Manufacturing brings Visionworks and Davis Vision to life.

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The ICEE Company sees continuing significant growth for its iconic frozen beverage treat as it prepares to celebrate 50 years.

By Stephanie Crets

It’s Friday night, and you’re relaxing after a long workweek with a trip to the movies with one of your friends. Before you find your seats, you approach the concession counter and see the variety of choices: candy boxes, pretzels and cheese sauce, mini pizzas and popcorn busting out of the popper.  Then, you spot the red and blue striped cups on display and the Cherry and Blue Raspberry flavors mixing inside the machine, ready for you to indulge. Your decision is easily made, and you treat yourself to not only a big bag of buttery popcorn, but also an ICEE to enjoy with your movie.

And that’s what The ICEE Company is all about: reminding us that we deserve a treat. “It’s such an iconic, fun product,” President Dan Fachner says. “You can barely mention the name without having a smile on your face. What makes it so unique is that it’s fun and people think of it as a treat or reward or something special to get for their loved one or themselves when they are away from home. That’s what’s made it so strong over the years.”

ICEE has been around for 50 years and many consumers feel a nostalgic pull towards it. “All of us grew up being promised an ICEE from our parent or grandparent,” Fachner says. “That reward carries the nostalgic feel throughout generations. People usually associate ICEE nostalgically with a fun event that happened in their life, such as getting an ICEE after a baseball game or having one at the amusement park with their friends or family. The colors of the ICEE brand have a nostalgic, Americana feel, and people immediately recognize the red and blue striped cup, the ICEE polar bear, spoon straw and dome lid all as part of the original, official and authentic ICEE brand.”

The ICEE Company infuses a tremendous amount of fun into the brand thanks to the types of customers it does business with. ICEE frozen treats are found in a variety of retail locations, including movie theaters, amusement parks, convenience stores and mass-merchandisers. The ICEE Company has 75,000 locations nationally and continues to grow at a rapid pace, not just domestically but also internationally in countries such as China, Central and South America, Mexico, Spain, Europe and Australia. It is also growing into new, different categories such as Dollar Stores, fast casual dining and buffet style restaurants.

“We currently have some exciting opportunities internationally that will continue to grow,” Fachner relates. “Equally fast is our domestic growth, not only in traditional locations, but also in exciting new categories of business we continue to explore. Theater channel partnerships have proven to grow significantly and have now expanded into China and Europe.

“What we do well that has allowed us to grow is we are great marketers of a really good product and sell to strong partners and take care of them,” he continues. “We have passionate dedicated people who understand the product and the importance of customer service. We understand our customers and try to deliver the best product at the best pricing in the best package they’re looking for. All of those segments have become significant drivers in growing our brand strength. Our product stimulates your senses in a bold way, and we have a broad distribution that allows customers to get ICEE at a moment’s notice. ICEE is an authentic, classic brand that makes consumers part of a tradition and become storytellers.”

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Ollie’s Bargain Outlet says its value proposition and strong supply chain are key to its success.

By Chris Petersen

Ollie’s Bargain Outlet offers shoppers an experience unlike anything else in retail, and that has been a major component in its continued success and growth over the years. As Senior Director of Distribution Jeff Glass explains, the retailer compares the shopping experience at Ollie’s to a “treasure hunt,” where customers may not know exactly what they’ll find, but they know that whatever they find will be a great bargain.

With 234 stores in 19 states. Ollie’s Bargain Outlet is one of the largest retailers specializing in closeout, excess inventory and salvage merchandise in the country. Founded in 1982 with the opening of its first store in Mechanicsburg, Pa., Ollie’s Bargain Outlet has grown significantly over the last decade, adding nearly 200 locations in the span of about 10 years. Although the value proposition the company offers its customers has a lot to do with that success, Glass says the company’s behind-the-scenes acumen also has played a substantial role in helping to foster its growth.

With a revitalized distribution network and an aggressive growth plan in place, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet has a bright outlook for the future, according to Glass. He says the company anticipates more growth in the years to come because it knows that there’s nothing shoppers like more than a good value, and they can find it at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet.

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Smoker Friendly creates a welcoming environment for smokers and vapers while it plans to grow its liquor locations and growler stations.

By Stephanie Crets

There can be a stigma to buying cigarettes in today’s world, but Smoker Friendly creates an open, pleasant environment that makes customers feel welcome. “We provide a very bright environment – one where you don’t feel ashamed coming in and buying your cigarettes,” Co-owner and Marketing Director Regan Bartley says. “If you’re a regular, our employees know what you want, and they’ll carry on and joke around with you. Our slogan is ‘clean, friendly, pleasant,’ but our employees make Smoker Friendly what it is.”

Smoker Friendly’s 41 locations are mainly dispersed across West Virginia, but it also has five stores in Ohio, one in Virginia and one in Maryland. The company has a couple acquisitions in the works and hopes to see some growth in its store numbers in 2017. In the meantime, Smoker Friendly is focusing on its rewards program for its loyal customer base. Launched at the beginning of October, the rewards program is free to sign up and allows customers to accumulate points for free products while also entering store sweepstakes.

“I’ve created one big program with so many benefits that the success rate has been seeing huge increases in sales,” Bartley says. “We’ve created a strong program to keep customers back in the stores.”

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TOPS Friendly Markets has served the Northeast for generations with supermarkets centered around customer service.

By Chris Petersen

For generations, TOPS Friendly Markets has been the local favorite throughout upstate New York and the surrounding area, and chairman and CEO Frank Curci says the company is committed to holding onto that position for many years to come. “As a New York state-owned and operated company, our vision is to be your friendly neighborhood store that has what you want while saving you time and money,” Curci says.

Keeping the promises it makes to its customers each and every day is paramount for TOPS and crucial for its continued success, and that has been the status quo for the company ever since before the first modern TOPS supermarket opened in 1962 in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The company’s roots date back even further, to the early 1920s when Ferrante Castellani moved his family to Niagara Falls from a small village in Italy. In Niagara Falls, Castellani opened his first grocery store, and his sons Armand and Alfred soon opened two more under the same name of Great Bear Market.

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BrandSource and its independent retail members work together to improve operations and provide better choices to consumers.

By Eric Slack

What started as a buying group in 1969 has become so much more for a diverse array of retailers. Today, BrandSource is more of a member services organization that serves retailers of many stripes and helps level the playing field so they can compete.

BrandSource’s roots extend back to a 1969 discussion among a group of appliance and electronics retailers, who saw the opportunity to get better pricing and terms by pooling their orders together. Those southern California retailers teamed up to form Associated Volume Buyers (AVB).

“Our founders got together because they saw they could get better deals from manufacturers by working together,” Chief Marketing Officer John White says. “Now we are a member-owned organization that works on behalf of our members with manufacturers, vendors and suppliers to get better prices, while also helping members to do better business and generate more business in their stores.”

The organization has grown to northern California, the Northwest and around the country, creating 17 different regions and locally managing regional operations to target the products each region sells. In 1994, the group became the first appliance and electronics buying group to sign a national mattress manufacturer, Simmons. This began the group’s entry into furniture.

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Foot Locker stores are designed to engage consumers in finding shoes that make their statement.

By Tim O’Connor

Dick Johnson enjoys standing at the top of the escalator at the entrance to Foot Locker’s new flagship store on 34th Street in New York City. From that vantage point, he can soak in the comments from shoppers as they walk around the 10,000-square-foot retail space and marvel at how the modern design tells the story of each brand’s shoes.

“You can tell they love the space,” the CEO of Foot Locker says. “You see it with the amount of product they are buying.”

Customer engagement was a core tenet of the company even before Johnson arrived at Foot Locker. In 1997, Johnson was working for catalog athletic footwear company Eastbay when Foot Locker – then known as Woolworth’s – purchased the Wisconsin-based company.

Foot Locker has changed dramatically in the nearly 20 years since, Johnson says. After being absorbed into the company, Johnson at first stuck with the catalog side of the business and had little interaction with the brick-and-mortar stores. That changed in 2007 when he took over the European operations, which were firmly rooted in physical locations.

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The 11th annual Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show takes place Jan. 17-19, 2017, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This will be the largest show to date with nearly 400 exhibiting licensees, offering the latest fan gear to expand the product offerings of retailers. Exhibitors represent all of the professional and collegiate leagues and teams and will be showcasing merchandise in every possible product category – from toys and games to apparel to pet products and much more. Check out some of the products you might see at the SLTShow below. For more information about the show, check out our preview. 

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