Central Market VP, once a grocery bagger, to share success story

Central
Market VP, once a grocery bagger, to share success story

…………………………………………………………………

BY MAILEEN HAMTO
Special to the Rice News

John M. Campbell
III, vice president of H-E-B Central Market, will speak
at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management Wednesday,
Nov. 28. The lecture, part of the Jones School’s Dean’s
Lecture Series, will be held at Herring Hall, Room 124.

Campbell, who
started his 30-year career with H-E-B by bagging groceries
at age 15, is credited with overseeing the inception of
Central Market, H-E-B’s specialty-store concept.

Offering a unique,
world-class market experience for food lovers, Central Market
has earned its reputation for being the premier fresh-food
emporium by providing consumers with the finest goods to
create, complete and complement each meal. Campbell began
creating the Central Market concept by visiting the world’s
finest markets for inspiration. He decided to forego devoting
shelf space for items one could purchase at a convenience
store to focus on products that consumers couldn’t
find elsewhere.

Campbell developed
a culture that emphasizes variety of quality products and
excellent customer service. Providing a broad assortment
of foods never before offered in Texas — even creating
new foods — became a priority. As he began to plan
the new store, he set up a supply system to acquire hundreds
of organic foods as well as Texas-grown herbs, cheeses,
flowers, meat and produce. He added a drive-through for
quick pick-ups of prepared meals and organized a Central
Market cooking school.

In Houston, Central
Market — located at 3815 Westheimer — covers 75,000
square feet, of which nearly one-fourth is devoted to the
produce section. The store offers 700 varieties of fresh
produce, 75 feet of seafood cases displaying 80 kinds of
fish and shellfish, 600 kinds of cheese, 2,500 kinds of
wine and more.

Before creating
the Central Market concept, Campbell held a variety of positions
within H-E-B, including director of food-service procurement,
internal auditor and bakery manufacturing plant manager.
He was named vice president of the H-E-B Central Market
division in 1997.

Campbell holds
an M.B.A. from the former Corpus Christi State University,
now Texas A&M University, and a bachelor’s in marketing
from Texas A&I University.

The Dean’s
Lecture Series brings prominent business leaders to talk
with students. Past speakers at the lecture series include
Jim Turley, global chairman of Ernst & Young; Keith
Bailey, chairman, president and chief executive officer
of Williams Co.; Douglas Daft, chairman and CEO, Coca-Cola
Co.; Michael Bloomberg, founder and president, Bloomberg
Financial Services; and Garrett Boone, founder and chairman,
The Container Store.

For more information,
contact Christi Neuenschwander ’02, <neuen@rice.edu>
or (713) 348-6364.

— Maileen
Hamto is assistant director of public relations at the Jesse
H. Jones Graduate School of Management.