(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune) “I take an informal approach,” said Mark Tuffin, president of Smith's Food & Drug Stores. “I like going to stores, talking to people and looking to see what customers have in their baskets. Feedback is how we get to that next level of innovation.”

For Smith’s chief, key is making each customer count

Managing » He endeavors to extend one-on-one approach to grocer’s 15,000 employees.

By dawn house

| The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Jun 02 2012 01:01 am • Last Updated Sep 11 2012 11:32 pm

If feedback is a gift, then almost every day turns out to be Christmas for Mark Tuffin, he likes to joke.

Tuffin, president of the Kroger Co.’s Smith’s division, is responsible for 133 Smith’s Food & Drug Stores in Utah and six other Western states.

He views his role overseeing 15,000 associates as a collaborative effort, an approach reflected at his headquarters office in Salt Lake City.

Tuffin, 52, has an open-door policy, but he is in the office only two days a week. He spends the other four days on the road, talking firsthand with employees and shoppers throughout the Intermountain West.

"I take an informal approach," he said. "I like going to stores, talking to people and looking to see what customers have in their baskets. Feedback is how we get to that next level of innovation."

He has not changed the configuration of his office since he was named division president last year. The most dominate feature is not his desk, the cream colored couches or artwork selected by associates. It’s a long, well worn conference table situated directly inside the entrance door.

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Focus on customers » Tuffin’s vision is unwavering. Smith’s goal is to cater to each shopper, with targeted coupons mailed to households and promotions geared to keep customers coming back. Smith’s had launched Fresh Values cards before being purchased by Kroger Co. in 1998 but the parent company has taken the concept to a higher level by researching purchasing information and matching it to individual shoppers.

Cincinnati-based dunnhumbyUSA, which analyzes data, crunches the numbers for Kroger, which owns a 50 percent stake in the firm. Other clients include Coca-Cola,General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods and Macy’s.

"We have the ability to talk to each customer on a one-to-one basis," said Tuffin. "We want to extend offers that are relevant to you. We want to understand you better than anyone else."

Customers are not only matched with the right coupons, they also are personally notified when any of the products they have purchased are recalled. In addition, loyalty cards are linked to the chain’s rewards fuel program in which customers can save up to $1 per gallon when they gas up at any Smith’s fuel centers. Last year, the offer was extended to participating Shell stations, where customers insert loyalty cards and then follow prompts at the pump for the savings.

Smith’s operates 71 fuel centers in seven Western states, including 37 in Utah. Shell operates 27 stations in Utah, and has a network of 6,100 stations in the West.

Loyal customers accounted for an industry-leading 33 consecutive quarters of positive same-store sales, Kroger Chief Executive Dave Dillon said at a March company conference. The strong performance rewarded shareholders last year, he said, with adjusted earnings of $2 per diluted share, a 15 percent increase in earnings over 2010. The company also increased its quarterly dividend payment by almost 10 percent.

Cutting edge grocery marketing, pushed by Kroger and other chains, is what drew Tuffin to the United States.

Before joining Smith’s, Tuffin had worked for Tesco, based in the United Kingdom, the world’s third-largest retailer, behind Walmart and Carrefour, based in France. Tesco, in partnership with the United Kingdom-based dunhumby, helped pioneer the use of grocery customer loyalty cards in the U.K.

In the United States, Smith’s, California-based Ralphs and King Soopers, founded in Colorado, were among the first grocery chains to introduce loyalty cards in the mid-to-late ’90s, shortly before merging with Kroger. Today, 85 percent of households have Kroger customer loyalty cards in the 31 states where the company or its division stores operate, which equates to half of all U.S. households.

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Starting out » Tuffin started his career in the grocery business while studying economics in Maidstone, England. He held various positions with other retailers before joining Smith’s in 1996. Three years later he was named vice president of merchandising. In 2009, he was promoted to vice president of transition at Kroger.

He describes the assignment at Kroger’s Cincinnati headquarters as a balancing act. Divisions in dozens of regions are to reflect state and regional characteristics, while implementing efficient corporate practices, focusing on areas "customers don’t see" that save money. Another unseen area is employee development, which he sees as a critical element of Smith’s success.

Smith’s pays for employees’ educations, including college courses, Spanish-speaking classes and relevant continuing education.

"We don’t want our associates to think of this as a summer or temporary job," Tuffin said. "We want them to consider working here as a career."

Thirty-year company veteran Jerry Vincent, who started as a bagger and today is a management trainer, said employees can follow a number of career paths.

"One of the great things about Smith’s, is that you can channel your efforts by going into store management, training, operations, or you can specialize in a specific department. I have tended to change positions, which is refreshing. Here, as long as you follow a certain path, you can pretty much go in any direction you want, and you can get there in a short period of time."

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