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MIAMI — The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) has honored former Kroger Co. chairman David Dillon with its Sidney R. Rabb Award.
The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) has honored former Kroger Co. chairman David Dillon with its Sidney R. Rabb Award.
The award, given each year in recognition of service to consumers, the community and the industry, was presented at the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference here.
"Dave is a respected leader in the larger food retail industry and consistently highlights the role of constructive feedback, believing that giving it establishes you as an informed leader and receiving it helps you become a better leader," said FMI president and chief executive officer Leslie Sarasin. "A person of great vision and charisma, his passion for nurturing future leaders for the food retail industry was evident in his spearheading FMI’s 2013 Future Connect Conference, an event dedicated to developing those identified with leadership potential."
Dillon’s career in the supermarket industry spanned 37 years and included 10-year stints as Kroger’s chairman (2004 to 2014) and CEO (2003 to 2013). Before that he held a variety of executive positions at Kroger and Dillons Cos., which merged in 1983.
Rodney McMullen, Kroger’s chairman and CEO, described Dillon as "a grocer’s grocer," and added that he is the kind of person who epitomizes what the Rabb award is all about — "somebody that cares about our industry, cares about people, and cares about Kroger and all the things in between."
Dillon was instrumental in developing Kroger’s "Customer 1st" strategy, which has been credited with driving the company’s success, including 44 consecutive quarters of positive identical-store sales growth. During Dillon’s tenure as CEO, Kroger boosted its annual revenue by $45 billion, created 53,000 new jobs and returned $9.2 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.
He is also credited with making Kroger a leader in supermarket sustainability. Kroger has reduced its stores’ energy consumption by 33% since 2000 and its carbon footprint by 4.4% since 2006. More than half of the company’s 37 manufacturing facilities are zero waste.
Dillon received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in 2012, and he continues to empower the entrepreneurial instincts of future grocers by mentoring students at his alma mater, where he serves on the University of Kansas Endowment’s board of trustees.
Outside the supermarket industry Dillon serves as a board member at DIRECTV and Union Pacific Corp., and he also serves on the boards of the University of Cincinnati Foundation, the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati and Catalyst. He was also an influential member of the board of directors of the Consumer Goods Forum and FMI.
Also honored by the FMI were IGA Inc. chairman Thomas Haggai and ConAgra Foods Inc. CEO Gary Rodkin.
Haggai, a past Rabb award recipient, received FMI’s Herbert Hoover Award for his humanitarian service via the Tom Haggai and Associates Foundation.
"It was his business influence that earned [Haggai] the FMI Sidney R. Rabb award in 2003," Sarasin explained, "but it is his commitment to youth, education and the community for which he earns the Hoover award more than a decade later."
Rodkin received the William H. Albers Award not only for his role at the helm of ConAgra Foods, but for his efforts as chairman of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
