The Butt family, Texas grocery kings

Texas has Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban, Ross Perot, the Basses and the Hunts. And then there are the Butts.

Charles C. Butt, 70, chairman and CEO of H. E. Butt Grocery Company, runs one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S. It has been family owned and operated since 1905, when grandmother Florence opened the C.C. Butt Grocery Store in Kerrville, Texas, with a $60 investment.

More than 100 years later, that mom-and-pop store is now known as H-E-B, employs over 56,000 and has annual revenue of more than $12 billion. It has more than 300 stores in Texas and Mexico and is headquartered in San Antonio. (Story continues below interactive map.)

The family is on the Forbes 400 list, which estimates its wealth at $2.3 billion.

But the Butts are not merely small-town, big-time grocers.

H-E-B founder Howard Edward Butt who died in 1991 at age 91, was named by John F. Kennedy to the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and helped to establish the University of Corpus Christi. He took his mother’s modest investment and expanded it around south Texas and Mexico.

His namesake and oldest son, Howard Jr., 80, heeded longtime friend Billy Graham’s advice to become a full-time preacher but still retains the title of vice chairman of the company.

Howard Jr. once spoke at a prayer breakfast hosted by Dwight Eisenhower. He also organized the North American Congress of the Laity, whose honorary chairman was Gerald Ford. He has published numerous books, including one by Random House, Who Can You Trust?

He preaches, writes and serves as president of the H. E. Butt Foundation, established in 1933. It started out with the goal of eradicating tuberculosis in the Rio Grande Valley, but today mainly supports Laity Lodge Ministries, which offers non-denominational seminars, retreats and camping facilities in the Texas Hill Country.

The founder’s daughter, Eleanor Butt Crook, 74, is a former schoolteacher like grandmother Florence and mother Mary. She is a public education advocate, a world hunger activist and a director of the LBJ Museum in San Marcos.

She married William H. Crook, a friend of brother Howard from Baylor University. The late Mr. Crook was an ordained Baptist minister, an adviser to Lyndon B. Johnson and national director of Volunteers in Service to America. In 1968 he was named ambassador to Australia.

Eleanor’s daughter, Elizabeth Crook, is a novelist, whose first two books were published by Jackie Onassis for Doubleday. Longtime family friend Bill Moyers hosted a New York book party for Elizabeth and LBJ Press Secretary Liz Carpenter gave The Raven’s Bride its title and helped in its publicity.

Charles, Howard Sr.’s youngest son, is a modern art collector who in 2006 gave $1 million to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio. Under his leadership, H-E-B contributes five percent of its pre-tax earnings to charity, a practice the family started in the 1930s.

As part of its community investment program, H-E-B spends almost $500,000 a year for Excellence in Education Awards to recognize Texas public school professionals. H-E-B supports 21 food banks that serve 8,000 organizations in Texas and Mexico.

Charles, like his sister Eleanor, is an advocate of Texas public education and medical research for which both have been recognized. The Mexican government awarded Charles in 2001 the prestigious Aguila Azteca award, the highest honor given to a foreigner.

The family’s next generation of grocers include Stephen W. Butt, 53, senior vice president for the upscale Central Market and Howard E. Butt III, 56, senior vice president and general manager of the Mexico division.

In addition to the usual grocery items, most H-E-B stores carry flowers (with the ability to ship worldwide), have in-house pharmacies (some with clinics), photo processing, mobile phone services and business centers. Help is only a click away for online meal planning and shopping tips, health advice, and life, home, auto and pet insurance. H-E-B also offers online defensive driving courses.

“Here Everything’s Better” is the company motto.

The Wharton — and Harvard — trained Charles Butt, head since 1971, carries on his family’s tradition of innovation. H-E-B introduced air conditioned stores in balmy south Texas in the 1940s, a frozen food section and its own brands. Later it opened “supermarkets” that brought together a fish market, butcher shop, pharmacy and bakery.

In the 1920s Howard Sr. persuaded his mother to sell tobacco and in the 1970s Charles persuaded his father, a Baptist deacon, to sell beer and wine and to remain open on Sundays.

H-E-B has stood firm on its south Texas ground against national chains like Albertson’s and Kroger and is in step with the Wal-Marts, Targets and Costcos in the “hypermarket” concept — where everything under the sun is sold under one roof. H-E-B Plus is a one-stop shopping destination for groceries, health and beauty products, grills, charcoal, diapers, greeting cards, lawn and garden equipment, music and electronics.

Sphere: Related Content