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H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, is an American privately held supermarket chain based in San Antonio, with more than 435 stores throughout Texas and Mexico. The company also operates Central Market, an upscale organic and fine foods retailer.
As of 2022, the company had a total revenue of 38.9 billion.
H-E-B ranked number 6 on Forbes 2022 list of "America's Largest Private Companies". The company also ranked number 3 on Forbes' 2024 list of "Customer Experience All-Stars." H-E-B was named Retailer of the Year in 2010 by Progressive Grocer. Supermarket News ranks H-E-B 13th on the list of "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" by sales. Based on 2019 revenues, H-E-B is the 19th-largest retailer in the United States. It donates 5% of pretax profits to charity.
The official mascot of H-E-B is named H-E-Buddy, an anthropomorphic brown grocery bag, with multiple grocery items emerging from the top.
Charles Butt, the younger son of Howard E. Butt, became president of H-E-B in 1971. As of 2019, Charles Butt is chairman and CEO of H-E-B, having grown the business from annual sales of $250 million in 1971 to $13 billion in 2006. In 2010, Craig Boyan was named H-E-B's president and COO. By 2018, Martin Otto, the former CFO and chief merchant, had become the COO. In 2011, the company was #12 on Forbes's list of "America's Largest Private Companies". H-E-B is the largest privately held company and largest private employer in Texas.
H-E-B acquired Favor Delivery as a wholly owned subsidiary in February 2018. The details of the merger were not disclosed.
In 2019, H-E-B invested millions of dollars to replace cashier stations with self-checkout kiosks or smartphone apps, following the trend of national supermarkets (such as Walmart and Target) towards self-checkout technology.
In 2025, H-E-B named current chief operating officer Roxanne Orsak as president, effective January 2026. She will succeed Craig Boyan, who is transitioning to senior advisor.
The company operates several manufacturing facilities in Texas, including one of the largest milk- and bread-processing plants in the Southwest. H-E-B produces many of their private label products, including milk, ice cream, bread, snacks, and ready-cooked meats and meals. These and other private-label products are sold under various brands, including "Central Market Naturals", "Central Market Organics", "H-E-B", "H-E-Buddy", "Hill Country Fare", "H-E-B Creamy Creations" ice cream, "H-E-B Mootopia" milk, and "H-E-B Fully Cooked".
Several stores include multiple-tenant operations through third-party lease arrangements. Many stores include a bank operation, cellular kiosk, and multiple nationally recognized tenants. H-E-B collaborates on new Hawaiian health drink venture, San Antonio Business Journal, December 21, 2006. Briefs, MySA.com, December 23, 2006. Austin's first Maui Wowi store opens in HEB , Austin Business Journal, February 12, 2007.
The Austin Business Journal rated H-E-B as the largest private-sector employer in the region in 2017.
In 2019, the company announced plans to build a technology center at its headquarters.
H-E-B operates four different formats of stores that introduce general merchandise and elements of the "market" concept, though they are unrelated to Central Market's mainline stores: The Woodlands Market in The Woodlands in Montgomery County, Kingwood Market in the Kingwood section of Houston, and the Austin-Escarpment store in South Austin. H-E-B's Alon Market opened in San Antonio on October 17, 2008.
In July 2015, the Market concept was expanded as a new Spring Creek Market was opened in southern Montgomery County in Spring, Texas, on Rayford Road. Spring Creek Market H-E-B H-E-B. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
Several other locations were later added, including stores in Flour Bluff, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Burleson, Bastrop, Beaumont, Belton, Boerne, Katy, Killeen, Victoria, Waxahachie, New Braunfels, Kyle, Laredo, Leander, Plus to open Friday in Leander Austin American-Statesman, February 22, 2007. Mission, Rio Grande City, San Juan, San Antonio, Pearland, Copperas Cove and Hutto.
Store size is typically 55,000 square feet, and each location employs about 150 employees, who are eligible to receive the pay and benefits available to employees across H-E-B brand stores.
The brand's name, Joe V's, is based on a company executive, Joe Villareal, who was the driving force behind the brand.
H-E-B has paid $12 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit accusing the San Antonio-based grocery chain of Medicaid fraud. Since at least 2006, according to the suit, H-E-B allegedly submitted to Texas Medicaid inflated prices on thousands of claims for prescriptions it filled so the company could obtain higher reimbursements than allowed.
H-E-B coordinated donations to relief efforts in the wake of a fertilizer plant fire and explosion in West, Texas. The company donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross and launched a checkstand campaign benefiting the organization to get the community involved in the relief effort. The company said in a news release 100% of the donations from the campaign will support the American Red Cross's disaster relief efforts. H-E-B also activated its emergency response units, sending the H-E-B Eddie Garcia Mobile Kitchen and water tanker to West, including donations of meals and water to the victims and first responders.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, H-E-B donated $100,000 toward relief efforts. Its campaign drive for customer contributions totaled $1,000,000. In addition, H-E-B's Mobile Kitchen and Disaster Relief Units distributed 10,000 hot meals to volunteers and victims in the affected areas in Texas.
In 2021, during Texas power crisis due to severe snow storms, H-E-B helped supply people with food, water, and heat.
After the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, H-E-B and the Butt family donated $10 million toward building a new school as founding donors. Initial participants joining the family included Texas architectural firm Huckabee and Texas general contractor Joeris General Contractors.
After the July 2025 Central Texas floods, H-E-B and the Butt family donated $5 million towards the recovery efforts.
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target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Charles Butt on Forbes 2004 List of World's Richest People
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