Wednesday, April 04, 2012STRUTHERS, Ohio – The Nemenz IGA supermarket on Creed Street was especially crowded Tuesday afternoon as friends, family and well-wishers gathered to see the president of the Ohio Grocers Association, Nate Filler, present Henry P. Nemenz Sr. with the trade group’s Pinnacle Award.
Nemenz is CEO of H.P. Nemenz Food Stores Inc. with headquarters in Poland
“It’s the Most Valuable Player award of grocers,” Filler said afterward. The Ohio Grocers Association represents more than 700 retailers and supermarket owners across the Buckeye State who range from mom-and-pop storefronts to Giant Eagle Inc., Kroger and Meijer. Nemenz will be honored at the grocers’ annual trade relations gala April 14 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Columbus.
The presentation near the bakery inside the Nemenz IGA here was the first time in the history of the Ohio Grocers that the honoree was presented the Pinnacle Award in his store, Filler noted.
The award – two are given each year – is determined by the grocers’ board of trustees based on their determination of nominees’ operational excellence and involvement in their communities. In addition to operating stores in Mahoning and Columbiana counties in Ohio and in Mercer County, Pa., Nemenz has helped to raise more than $1 million for local charities during his career, Filler said.
For more than 80 years, the Nemenz family “has a history of helping the community,” the president of the grocers association told well-wishers who included Mayor Terry Stocker, Dennis Johnson, chairman of the Columbiana County Democratic Party, Dan Becker, owner of Becker funeral homes, and Ed DiGregorio, former women’s basketball coach at Youngstown State University.
In his response, Nemenz recalled how his father, Gustav, come to this country unable to speak English and opened a small grocery store 83 years ago in North Lima. His mother, Anna, worked side by side with him. That store occupied less than 1,000 square feet.
During the Great Depression, the Nemenzes often gave food to those unable to pay them, their son recalled, and how he and his brother Gus, eight years his junior, helped out. They delivered food door-to-door, he recalled.
The most important lesson “my dad told me,” he said, “is don’t forget where you came from.”
In accepting the award, Nemenz, inducted into the grocers’ hall of fame, began by joking it was because of his longevity.
Turning serious, “I may get emotional,” Nemenz said as he paused to regain control of those emotions. He credited his family, employees and customers for the success he’s enjoyed, saying the PinnacleAward “was earned by their hard work.”
Afterward, Stocker called Nemenz “a great contributor to our community. Our family shops here. He treats people well and the community really appreciates everything he does for us.”
The future of relatively smaller owners such as Nemenz and his family is secure, Filler said afterward. The number of shoppers in the IGA yesterday, unaware Nemenz was to be honored, reinforced the OGA president’s point as they tried to navigate the aisles near the bakery.
Nemenz takes pride in that bakery because it makes nearly everything it sells “from scratch,” he emphasized, unlike larger competitors that truck in their house-label baked goods from other cities. Nemenz baked goods “are our signature item,” he said.
Profit margins in the supermarket industry, always thin, will remain thin because of the competition, Nemenz and Filler agreed. Nemenz said he’s already feeling increased pressure on those margins in the form of higher labor costs.
“We have not had an easy time of it – ever,” Nemenz said. Nor does he expect that to change. But he does expect his employees will continue “to give great service with a smile.”
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.